


Into the Wildlife

by ahelms500



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-07
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-25 22:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahelms500/pseuds/ahelms500
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole world melts away as Emily looks up and locks eyes with Isaac. The pools of crystal blue seem to hold so much pain and hurt but the edges hold so much joy and innocence and caring. All those emotions both worry and intrigue Emily, but all she could wrap her head around was one word: Protect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She knows she shouldn't be out in the woods, not only was it the middle of the night, but Beacon Hills was vastly becoming known for the numerous attacks and murders. She wasn't naïve about them, but she needed to get away from her Dad. One hard slap to her cheek and a shove down the stairs was all Emily can handle that night. Cradling her right wrist, she carefully climbs over a fallen trunk, walking farther into the woods. She doesn't think her wrist is broken but it could possibly be sprained, either way, she just has to bare it – her Dad won't be happy if she babies it.

Hearing rustling from behind, Emily stops dead in her tracks, holding still as she tries to hear what is going on. The rustling gets louder and faster as it gets closer, but just as she is getting ready to scream, it stops and the woods fall silent again.

She tries to open her open ears but all she can hear is the thumping of her heart as it tries to come down from an adrenaline rush. She pulls her wrist closer to her chest, thinking of her chances of actually fighting off something bigger than a bunny. Emily chews on her bottom lip. The tumble she took last week after not bringing in the groceries fast enough still has an effect on her ankle and, although her wrist wasn't broken now, if she has to fight, she surely would break it.

"Are you lost?"

Emily turns her attention slightly to the left to see a pale skinned, teenage boy as he steps out of the darkness of the woods and into the light of the half moon. His hair is a light brown and cut short but curls were still forming in the hair. He has on a ¾ length sleeved, blue and grey baseball shirt with jeans on. And he was tall, so tall. Emily could have sworn his eyes were a sparkling yellow, but when she blinks, they were a bright blue.

"No." she shakes her head.

"It's past midnight, what are you doing out in the woods?"

"I could ask you the same question." Emily raises an eyebrow.

"Guess you're right." The boy chuckles, "I'm Isaac." He holds his hand out.

Emily teeths her lower lip again and holds her wrist up. "Emily."

"Are you okay?"

"I uh, tripped over some weeds a while back, just landed on it weird."

Isaac seems to be looking over her intensely and Emily becomes thankful for the shadows she was hidden under. She hadn't gotten the chance to look at her cheek on her run out the door but she knew if it was the middle of the day and not night, the curious boy in front of her would be able to see the swollen knot that was now her left cheek. Emily shifts under his gaze, swallowing the lump that forms in the back of her throat.

Isaac tilts his head, a smile forming. "You go to Beacon Hills right?"

It suddenly clicks in Emily's head. Isaac. "Isaac Lahey?"

"You – you know me?"

Emily can't believe she missed it before. The curls, how tall he was, the jawline – the girls behind her in English class don't shut up about him. Most of the girls at their school usually talk about the entire group Isaac hangs out with. Scott, Jackson, Boyd, even Stiles gets a few whispers. And Danny, everybody loves Danny. The girls, Lydia and Allison, are always the talk of fashion as well as how every guy wants Lydia… and Erica, especially after her transformation from medical induced sickly teenager to a hot, blonde bombshell, the boys can't seem to get enough.

"You're really good at lacrosse." Emily comments.

"You've been to the games?" Isaac glances up from the ground, his smile making his eyes sparkle in the moonlight.

"No exactly…" Emily shakes her head. "I've walked by some of the practices on my way home."

She would go to the games if she knew people – well, she knew most of the students at the school but she wasn't a friend with any of them. Her Dad and her moved to Beacon Hills a little over a year ago and being the weird girl who always had bruises and strange excuses put a damper on making friends.

"You should come! I mean… I could use a teenager that I'm not sharing with Scott or Jackson." He shoves his hands in his front pocket and lifts his shoulders up to his ears.

"I'm sure you have plenty, you just haven't noticed." Emily teases.

Before Isaac can give a snarky comment back, a howl can be heard in the distance. His ears seem to perk up towards the howl and he takes a deep breath in. "I've got to go." He kept his focus on hearing something else. "You can make it home?"

"Yea, it's just over there." Emily points over her shoulder.

"You should go home. Stay in for the rest of the night." Isaac shrugs but keeps a firm, stern look in his eyes. Emily looks down at her wrist. "Also, I would put some ice on your wrist, helps with the swelling." He turns his back to her but throws his head over his shoulders. "The ice will help with your cheek too."

The boy is gone before Emily can look up.

She doesn't want to go back to her Dad just yet but she finds her feet shuffling back to the direction she came. The way Isaac looked at her when he suggested she stayed in for the rest of the night chills her to the bone. It didn't seem like a request, more like a plea mixed with a demand. He was worried about something – maybe the howl. Either way, Emily felt she had more of a chance dealing with slaps, punching, and shoving over sharp teeth and claws.

She turns her body back around and quickens her pace, cautious of the wood's floor.

"Is that you Emillette?" Her Dad's voice calls out from deep in the house as soon as Emily steps through the back door.

Emily curses under her breath as she clicks the door shut softly behind her. She was hoping he was passed out by now, it's been a few hours since she left, but tonight must not have been a good enough night for him.

"Yea – yea Dad. It's me." She croaks out. Her Dad was silent. Emily takes a deep breath and begins making her way to the front entrance of the kitchen.

"Where did you go?"

The softness of the voice causes Emily to freeze in her steps. Her Dad was past drinking himself to sleep; instead, he was in the stage where he acts like a lost child. Biting her lip and going against her better judgment, Emily steps away from the safety of the hallway and stairs and crosses the tiled floor into the living room.

Her Dad lies slumped in his armchair, multiple can of empty beer scatters the carpet around his feet. The flicker from the TV bounces around his five o'clock shadow, intensifying the dullness in his eyes as he rolls his neck in her direction.

"You were gone." He sadly slurs.

"Just had to get some fresh air… sorry." Her Dad's head rolls forward and bobs there. "Let's get you up to bed, okay?" Emily walks over to him, pushing a path in the beer cans as she gets closer.

Her Dad doesn't argue or lash out at her when she steps closer but it doesn't stop her hesitation as she grabs his arm with her left hand and pulls him up. Emily counts her blessings as she holds her breath and puts his arms over her shoulder, hoping the stench of alcohol and sweat doesn't cause her to gag.

"What did you do to your wrist?" Her Dad asks, reaching for it as Emily guides him to the foot of the stairs.

"It's okay." She twists away from his touch. "I fell and landed on it wrong."

"You should let me kook at it."

"It's fine Dad. I'm going to put some ice on it once we get you upstairs."

The answer seems to please him as he grabs onto the railing with his left hand and looks over to the living room. "S'room a mess." He mumbles.

"I'll clean it up, okay?"

Her Dad doesn't say anything else as they continue their way up the stairs and around the corner to his bedroom. Emily doesn't bother with anything more then pulling the bed sheets back and dropping him onto the mattress. He was asleep by the time they reached the bed, so tossing him down was simple.

She catches a glimpse of the aging photograph on his nightstand and quickly shakes her head. Her Mom left years ago and yet her Dad hadn't seemed to let her go, still wearing his wedding ring, talking about her like she was still gone on the business trip she had left them for. She knew her husband was getting worse in his drinking and anger issues but instead of taking her young daughter with her, she left Emily to fend for herself.

Emily shakes her head again and flips the photo frame with the two smiling people face down and leaves the room.

After cleaning up the beer cans and shutting the TV off, Emily steps back outside to drop the bag of cans in the garbage. Seeing the reflection of the moon off the window, she brings her hand up to her cheek, a flash of Isaac's face telling her to stay inside flies through her memory. Almost as if another reminder, a loud branch snaps in the distance, causing Emily to squeak and hustle inside, locking the door tightly behind her.

She was halfway out of the kitchen when she turns around, pulls open a drawer, and grabs two sandwich bags. Looking out of the door's window into the night, Emily shutters at what could possibly be out there. Turning her attention to the sandwich bags, she finally gets them open, pulls on the freezer door, and grabs handfuls of ice, dropping them into the bags. As soon as she was done, she shuts the freezer door and speeds out of the kitchen, wanting to get away from the creepy shadows of the night outside of the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily meets the pack

The next day at school seems to be going pretty well for Emily, considering her wrist is still swollen and she can’t quite open her jaw all the way, but she’s learned how to deal with that. Pulling the red sleeve securely over her wrist, she slides it into her hoodie pocket, her version of a sling for the day, and grabs her plastic spork.  
“I see you took my advice with the ice.”  
Emily snaps her head up from stabbing at her crusty mac and cheese to see the sparkling blue eyes of Isaac. “Works wonders.” She smiles.  
“How’s your wrist?” He nudges his hand not holding his tray toward her hoodie pocket.  
“Better then last night.” She shrugs.  
“That’s great!” Isaac gently grins but then bites his bottom lip as if he was nervous about something. “Are you – uh – are you going to the game tonight?”  
It is then that Emily notices the maroon and white LACROSSE shirt Isaac is wearing with his jeans. “I don’t have anyone to go with…” Emily begins to focus hard on pushing her food around, ashamed with how lame she sounds.  
“Scott and Jackson’s girlfriends are going, Allison and Lydia. Do you know them?”  
Emily has quite a few classes with both girls and although they were both really sweet, she’s never talked to either of them outside of in-class projects. “Not very well.”  
“Oh,” Isaac lets out with a puff of air. “Well, they’re over at the table; if you’d like to come eat with me, I could introduce you.” He points to a few tables down to where three guys and two girls were already sitting.  
A boy with small moles speckling his jaw bone waves his arms around vividly, occasionally smacking the book in the hands of the spikey black haired boy next to him as the blond boy rolls his eyes so hard Emily is surprised they didn’t roll right out. The girl sitting next to the blond boy seems unbothered by what they were discussing as she fixes a stray strand of her red hair in her mirror. The other, a dark haired, slightly pale girl leans her chin on the shoulder of the black haired boy as she reads over his shoulder.  
“Are you sure I won’t be interrupting anything?” Emily raises an eyebrow as she turns back to Isaac.  
“What? No! They’re – they like meeting new people. It’ll be fun.” He raises both his brows as if egging her on.  
“Okay.” She smiles softly, standing to her feet and slipping her book bag strap over her good arm. As she goes to grab her tray she sees it already being lifted into the air.  
“I got it,” Is all Isaac says before he begins leading her to the other table.  
“You asked me to do research so I did research – you can’t be mad at me for what it says.”  
“I’m not mad, it just doesn’t make sense.” Black haired boy shakes his head. Isaac and Emily are just stepping up to the table when the boy moves his attention from the book to the duo, a grin spreading on his face. “You must be Emily.”  
“Uh, yes?” Emily looks over at Isaac with a confused expression. She might know everyone at the table due to the talk and gossip around school but she doesn’t have any classes with Scott, how would he know her name?  
“I told them I might be bringing a friend to eat with us for lunch.” A light blush spreads over Isaac’s cheeks as he sits their trays down on the table.  
Emily gives out a silent “Oh.” And sits down.  
“Where are Erica and Boyd?” Isaac asks as he sits down as well.  
“Right here sweet cheeks.” A perfectly manicured hand runs from one of Isaac’s shoulders to the other. “Did you miss me?” The blonde haired girl slides her tray down on the other side of Isaac while a muscular, dark skinned boy sits down next to her, completing the table.  
“Always.” Isaac rolls his eyes. “Emily, this is the pack. Erica, Boyd, Stiles, Scott, Allison, Lydia, and Jackson.” He points every one. As he says everyone’s name, they give her a tiny wave, until Jackson who seems to give out a sallow grunt. Isaac narrows his eyes at the blond past Emily but Jackson just cocks his eyebrows.  
“Are you coming to the game tonight?” Allison sits up straight as Scott closes the thick book and hands it back to Stiles who simply tosses it to the center of the table as he crams BBQ soaked streak fries into his mouth.  
“I’ve never been to any of the games.”  
“You can go with Lydia and I. We’re grabbing something to eat before going; you’re more then welcome to come.”  
“I honestly don’t know that much about lacrosse.” Emily bites her lip. She feels like she was caught in a lie, especially since she told Isaac he was good at it last night. She had heard it was similar to hockey but she doesn’t know much about that sport either.  
“We’ll teach you.” Lydia snaps her mirror shut and, after dropping it into her purse, looks towards Emily with a friendly smile. “It’s not too hard.” She shrugs.  
“If anything you could count how many times McCall and Stilinski trip over each other.”  
“Are you forgetting who basically won the championship last season?” Stiles snaps, stopping a handful of fries halfway to his mouth.  
“Yea, the same guy who’s going to get his ass kicked if he mentions it one more time.” Jackson snarls, his fist clenching tight next to his tray.  
“When are you two ever going to get along?” Erica pipes up.  
Stiles ends Jackson and his stare down to tilt his head at Erica as if he didn’t notice she had arrived. “You have a metabolism of a Greek God and yet you’re going to waste your taste buds on leaves?”  
As Erica snaps back a snarky comment about feeling healthy, Emily sits back in her chair. Everyone else around the table splits into their own conversation again, the multiple voices making it hard for her to keep up with any. She’s use to being alone, but now she’s around a tight knit group of friends, a pack as Isaac had put it, and it’s a pack she wasn’t in.  
As if sensing her discomfort, Isaac softly nudges her, pulling her attention away from watching Stiles trying to get Scott to back him up. “They’re a lot to take in.” He comments. “Sorry. I should have warned you.” He apologizes.  
“No, I’m just not use to it.” Emily shakes her head. “Your friends are… unique?” she chuckles.  
Isaac grins back, nodding slightly along. His lips slide tight again as he swallows and looks down, tapping his spork a few times onto his tray. “Are you sure your wrist is all right?”  
Emily immediately stops running her fingertips over the sensitive lump and looks at it. She had not only sat it outside her hoodie pocket but had also pushed the sleeve back past her wrist, exposing the blue, green, and black colored skin.  
“It’s just sore.” She stutters out, trying to slow her heart rate down from realizing Isaac just saw how bad her wrist really was.  
“I uh, heard human contact sometimes helps with pain.” Emily doesn’t miss the quick look Isaac gives Scott, who is now looking their way with interest. “Have you ever tried it?”  
Emily shakes her head. “It’s just my Dad and I at home and he’s not exactly the touchy feely type.” She tucks a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.  
“Can’t hurt to try, right?” Isaac blinks softly.  
Emily has lost her words as she stares at Isaac with her jaw slightly opened. No one’s cared about her well being since her Mom, yet here is Isaac, a boy she met in the middle of the night yesterday, worried about her. She closes her jaw then, holding her wrist out slowly, silently giving him permission.  
Isaac curves the corner of his lips up and reaches out, his fingers lying over the skin. The whole world melts away as Emily looks up and locks eyes with Isaac. The pools of crystal blue seem to hold so much pain and hurt but the edges hold so much joy and innocence and caring. All those emotions both worry and intrigue Emily, but all she could wrap her head around was one word: Protect.  
Isaac’s chair is kicked so forcefully that Isaac nearly skids away from the table. He was quick to whip his head around, dropping Emily’s wrist, and growling in Erica’s direction. Erica simply shrugs, a wild smirk on her face as she eats a forkful of salad.  
“Do you like Chinese food Emily?” Allison phrases the question as if it wasn’t the first time she’s asked.  
“Yes.” Emily nods her head while turning to Allison. “I love Chinese food.”  
“It’s settled.” Lydia bounces in her seat. “We’ll meet you out front after school.”  
Emily can’t help the smile that keeps onto her face as she picks up her plastic utensil and begins eating again. She has plans, with people, and it isn’t based around a school project. The fact that those plans include the cute, curly haired, bright-eyed boy next to her just adds to the excitement.  
Isaac gives her a brief grin, a blush fading from his cheeks, as he brings his juice bottle up to his lips, no longer angry with Erica for kicking his chair.  
The fact that Emily’s wrist was no longer hurting as much is added as a bonus.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't know much about Lacrosse, so I had to do some research, so if I don't explain something quite a correctly as I should, please let me know so I can fix it :)

Emily sits on the ledge on top of the stairs in front of the school, her book bag tucked into her side as she sits crossed legged, her camera balancing on her ankles as she snaps photos of the other students leaving school. Since she is the skinny thing that she is, she’s easily able to tuck in on herself and most people pay her little or no mind in their rush to get out of their seven-hour weekday version of jail. Emily doesn’t mind being ignored one bit for she loves capturing the every day interaction of others that aren’t staged.  
She’s too busy capturing a couple of freshmen boys skateboarding down the main sidewalk to notice Lydia and Allison walk up behind her.  
“Yearbook?” Allison asks.  
Emily takes a deep breath in, embarrassed by being caught as she quickly flips her camera so the screen was down and looks up. “Na-no,” she shakes her head, looking back down as she fiddles with her camera, the heat dismissing from her cheeks and ears upon realizing it was Lydia and Allison. “I just like capturing moments.”  
“You’re not some stalker are you? We had to deal with one last year and he came with a whole lot of other issues.” Lydia shows her annoyance with everything but an eye roll.  
“No,” Emily smiles at the thought of her being a stalker. “Not a stalker,” she slips her arms through the straps of her book bag and jumps down from the ledge. “I promise,” She throws her arms up in innocence.  
“Well, for the record, they’re really good pictures from what I saw. You should think about submitting them in for the yearbook.” Allison looks at her from the corner of her eye as the three of them walk towards the parking lot.  
Emily opens her mouth to say something but closes it, softly knitting her brows in, replacing it almost instantly with a smirk. She doesn’t get compliments, just yelled insults from her Dad. It was a nice change. “Thanks.”  
Allison gives her a short nod.  
“Isaac has a thing for you, you know.” Lydia tucks her right shoulder into her cheek, a smile on her face.  
“Lydia, you swore you wouldn’t say anything!” Allison gapes.  
“His threats don’t scare me.” Lydia rolls her eyes and leans forward, giving full eye contact to Emily. “Isaac’s like this giant puppy. His threats consist of cold shoulders and glares that make him look like a pouting child.”  
Emily slows down her walking, sliding behind the two girls by a few steps. Isaac? Has a thing for her? She shakes her head, thinking she must have heard them completely wrong. She’s the weird girl who wears long sleeves in the summer to hide the bruises and doesn’t have friends because it was just a lot easier. Isaac’s the cute, athletic, lacrosse player who has a group of friends so large they practically take over the school. There’s no way she heard them right.  
“How about you?” Lydia asks as the three girls walk up to Lydia’s Ford Focus.  
“I-uh… what?” Emily blinks multiple times in a row, trying to get her head around everything.  
“You like Isaac right?”  
Emily looks over the car’s hood to see Allison trying hard to hide her curiosity as she thumbs around on her phone. When Emily looks down, a smile spreads over her lips as Isaac’s hesitation from lunchtime plays over and over again in her mind. She’d be lying to herself if she doesn’t admit she’s had a small crush on Isaac for a while now, ever since she saw Scott and Allison teasing him in the hall last year…  
“Oh I know that look.” Allison broke Emily’s train of thought.  
Emily ducks her head as she yanks the back passenger’s door open and jumps inside. She could hear both Lydia and Allison giggle softly as they get into the car themselves.  
“Please don’t tell him.” Emily begs before Lydia can put the keys in the ignition.  
“Sweetie, it’s not my place to go telling people who likes them.” Both Allison and Emily send Lydia a look, especially since she just blabbed that Isaac likes Emily. “That’s different.” She waves it off before she puts her car in reverse and whips out of her spot.  
“I won’t say anything either.” Allison adds, shifting in her seat to look at Emily. “But it’s really cute, the way he acts around you. Reminds me a bit of Scott when we first started dating.”  
“How long have you two been together?”  
“Two years,” Allison smiles. “He was the first person I met when I moved here.”  
“And the only time they’re away from each other is with by bribe or threat.”  
“She’s over exaggerating.” Allison rolls her eyes before digging into her bag for something.  
“I’m not.” Lydia mouths shaking her head when she caught Emily’s eyes in the rearview mirror.  
Allison glances at her friend from the corner of her eye but doesn’t say anything about it.  
“What about you Lydia?” Emily asks as the car pulls up to an intersection. “How long have you been with your boyfriend?”  
“Me? I’m single.” Lydia pulls her shoulders back, tightening her lips as she stares straight ahead.  
“Oh,” Emily sits back in response. She could have sworn she saw Jackson and her holding hands down the hall just the other day and he had his arms wrapped around the back of her chair this afternoon at lunch. “I just thought you and Jackson were… um…” Emily trails off.  
“We were. But now we’re on break. We’ve both decided to leave it be for now.” Lydia drums her fingers on her steering wheel.  
Emily doesn’t miss the short look Allison gives her from the passenger’s seat that tells her she hadn’t misinterpreted the couple’s chemistry. Lydia hadn’t misinterpreted that look either as she pops her lips. “Music?” she taps play on her car’s screen and music quickly and loudly begin coming out of the speakers.

“It’s just you and your Dad right?” Allison asks a few hours later as Emily and her waited in Lydia’s room among their schoolwork as Lydia runs downstairs to get their food.  
“Yea, since I was eight.”  
“It’s been my Dad and I for about a year since my Mom passed away. We’re a lot closer now because of it.”  
Emily stops writing the answer to the History question and sucks in a deep breath. “I wish my Dad and I were close.”  
“Your Dad and you aren’t?” Allison tilts her head slightly, a curious expression on her face.  
“My Dad and I get along as well as North and South Korea.” Emily sends a small, tight smile, clicking her pen against her notebook.  
Before Allison can ask what Emily means by that, Lydia pushes open her bedroom door, her arms piled with boxes of Chinese take out. “I think that’s enough homework for the night.” She says, placing the boxes on top of the chest located at the end of her bed. “We’ve still got to get ready.”  
“Get ready?” Emily asks, looking up from passing a take out box of fried rice to Allison.  
“For the game! We’ve got to look cute for the boys don’t we?” Lydia raises her brows, popping open one of the boxes and digging her chopsticks into the contents.  
“This is… all I have.” Emily looks down at her black and white stripped long sleeve shirt, skinny jeans, and mismatched socks. Her red hoodie and black converse lay in a pile on the other side of Lydia’s room along with her book bag. It’s not that she was out of fashion or didn’t know anything about make up, but having a waitressing job where she some times work late at night and then having to get up before dawn to avoid her Dad didn’t always leave time for Emily to really care about what she looks like.  
“I’ve got a few things you can borrow, but we can make this work.” Lydia pokes her chopsticks with a piece of chicken squashed between in Emily’s direction.  
Emily quickly looks down, pulling the sleeves of her shirt over her fingertips and working her bottom lip. She is all for the small make over Lydia has planned; she just hopes it doesn’t involve anything where she will have to show them her arms.

Walking onto the field to the bleachers with Lydia and Allison doesn’t cause as much of a stir as Emily thinks it would. Nobody shouts at her for following the girls or questions her about it. Instead, they send her stares that say the words not spoken. That is, until Lydia pats the spot next to her on the bleachers and Emily sits down.  
They hadn’t done too much to change Emily’s appearance, a bit more make up around the eyes, curled hair, and a borrowed jacket from Lydia. It may not have been much, but Emily sure did feel different.  
“Okay.” Lydia claps her hands. “A quick rundown of the game before it starts.”  
Emily looks from the field of stretching boys to Lydia, to back out to the field so she can follow Lydia’s pointing finger.  
“Our goalie is Danny, number 6. He missed lunch today because he had to make up a test. We’ll introduce you to him after the game. Now, in front of Danny are three defenders. Boyd, Erica’s boyfriend, plays there the most, he’s number 23. Defenders can only stay in the Defender’s area unless they have the ball and then a midfielder has to stay there. On the other side of the field with the other team’s goalie is the Attack area for us, with our three Attackers. That’s Stiles’ area and he’s 24. They can only stay in that area. We also have three midfielders, they’re able to go anywhere on the field, that’s where Jackson and Scott play, numbers 11 and 37.”  
“What about Isaac?” Emily bounces her legs off the open bench in front of her, her eyes trying to find the tall lanky boy.  
“Isaac’s what I like to call a Jumper because he’ll play any of the three field positions. Tonight it looks like he’ll play Defender with Boyd. Number 14.” Lydia points to the maroon jerseys on the field walking around in front of the goal. The two boys seem to be in a silly conversation as Boyd shakes his head and Isaac throws his head back.  
“Did you three have a fun girls time this afternoon?” Erica questions, dropping down next to Emily with a bag of popcorn in her hands.  
“You could have come Erica.” Lydia shrugs.  
Erica leans forward and looks to Lydia’s right side at Allison. She raises her brows and then looks at Lydia. “No thanks.”  
Allison takes a deep breath in, seeming to calm herself before whipping her head towards the newcomer. “How many times do I have to apologize for that?”  
“In the high hundreds would be okay with me.” Erica gives Allison a straight lined smile; eyes wide as she tosses a piece of popcorn past her glossed lips.  
Allison’s jaw tightens before she lets out a puff of air. “I’m sorry.”  
“I’ll add that to your count.”  
Allison bites her tongue as she turns her attention back out to the field. Emily sits, looking between the girl to her left and the girl to the right of Lydia. She tries to figure out what Allison could have possibly done to make Erica angry with her because as far as she could tell, Allison is a complete sweetheart. When she looks towards Lydia for an explanation, the red head holds up her open hands with a silent sigh – she doesn’t want to get into it.  
Turning her thought back out to the field, Emily sees the team has all come in and are standing around the bench, their helmets off. Scott is giving a concerned head tilt towards Allison but she waves him off, sending him a thumbs up instead. Stiles is jumping around, one hand jabbing into himself as the other holds up his pointer finger; “I’m first string!” is being mouthed towards an older gentleman Emily knows as Officer Stilinski. The older gentleman is both shaking and nodding his head, a goofy smile on his face. Jackson and Danny are in a deep conversation that has Jackson rolling his eyes again. Emily still wonders how his eyes have stayed in their sockets.  
With a slight movement to the left, a grin creeps up on Emily’s face. There, standing next to a silent Boyd are the bright blue eyes Emily can’t get out of her head. Some of his dark blonde curls are already flattened against his forehead from his helmet. He looks so much taller and broader in his uniform as he stands next to Boyd and Scott. His eyes seem to be scanning the crowd until Erica gives out a loud cheer and waves her arms.  
Upon spotting her in the crowd, Isaac immediately raises his gloved hand and waves. Emily smiles and gives a soft wave back.  
“Lahey! If you’re done waving to your girlfriend I’d like to have a team meeting before the game!” Coach Finstock’s shout can be heard up the bleachers.  
“Sorry Coach.” Isaac ducks his head.

Shortly after half time, Emily pulls her camera out and begins taking pictures of the game and the people enjoying the sport. Thanks to Lydia and Allison answering questions, she now has a pretty good understanding of the game and is able to get in on the crowd’s excitement.  
She is taking a picture of Stiles on the field when she sees him tense up as he looks over to the other side of the field, past Danny and the goal. Emily quickly snaps the photo before turning her camera to the direction he is looking. There, standing far behind the goal, is a mysterious, big shoulder, bald man in a white shirt and jeans. He stands with his arms at his side but his hands are in a claw formation.  
“Who’s Stiles looking at?” Emily turns her attention away from her camera’s screen to Lydia.  
“What do you mean?” Lydia asks, turning away from the game.  
“That guy behind Dan-.” Emily cuts her sentence short when she turns to point to the guy but is only able to see dirt and grass. “There was a guy… Stiles looked scared to death to be seeing him.”  
“What did he look like?” Allison joins the conversation.  
“Big. Bald. Hideously creepy looking.” She tries to joke but when she sees the worried expressions of not only Lydia and Allison but of Erica too, the smile quickly vanishes. “Wait, you guys know him?”  
“He’s not exactly someone we want around.” Lydia swallows hard.  
“Should we be concerned?”  
“Na.” Lydia frowns, shaking her head twice before straining her neck to see across the field.  
By this time, Stiles has either told the other boys or they found out themselves because instead of focusing all their attention on the field, their eyes are scanning the surrounding areas. Boyd and Isaac let two attackers and a midfielder pass them in a time frame of fifty seconds. Danny is able to hold off and catch one of the balls thrown at the goal, but the other two zips past him.  
Coach is having a fit on the sideline and though Isaac keeps sending him apologetic looks, another player gets past him a second later.  
“Lahey! Boyd! If you two don’t start paying attention to this game, I’m going to replace one of you with Greensburg! And that’s an insult on all of us!” Coach jabs his finger in the air towards the two boys.  
Turning to make a comment about the boys to Erica, Emily only sees a deserted beach with a crumbled up bag of popcorn underneath. She tries to scan the crowd for her, thinking she left for the bathroom, but she can’t spot the long, bouncing curls anywhere. Having have felt the tension between the girls the entire game, Emily doesn’t bother bringing it up to Lydia or Allison as she flips her camera back on and begins taking pictures of the last five minutes of the game.  
As the last ninety seconds tick down on the scoreboard, another mysterious looking guy appears among the sidelines. Emily immediately recognizes him as the older guy she sees with the others with around town from time to time. She pulls her camera up to capture a photo of him watching Stiles. The second her shutter clicks off, the dark haired stranger turns his head and looks directly at Emily. She jumps back slightly and takes a deep breath in, her heart racing from the guy’s intense stare.  
When Emily looks back up from the camera, the end of the game buzzer goes off and Lydia and Allison jump to their feet. Beacon Hills has won, even with the distracted team through the second half. Emily stands to her feet as well, her hands clapping along with the rest of the crowd as the boys line up for their ‘Good game’ handshakes with the other team.  
With the handshakes out of the way, Scott, Stiles, Jackson, Danny, and Boyd all gather tightly together as Isaac stands just next to them, his eyes locking with Emily’s. At first Emily grins back to him but she then sees the worry flooding his eyes through his helmet and her smile vanishes. Boys taps Isaac’s elbow and he quickly looks away, seeing Scott, Stiles, and Jackson beginning to make their way off the field. Stepping backwards, following the others, Isaac looks back up at the bleachers, this time at Allison whom dips her head. Ripping his helmet off, he flashes a smile to Emily before turning his body and jogging after the others.  
“Where are they going?” Emily asks when she notices the boys heading straight towards the parking lot and not the locker room.  
“Let’s go ask Danny.”  
Lydia has already gathered her belongings and is now waiting patiently on Emily. Quickly reaching down to grab her bag, Emily begins making her way down the bleachers, stepping aside to let Lydia and Allison lead the way to the boy in the 06 jersey.  
“Hey Danny, nice game!” Allison greets as soon as the trio steps up to him.  
“Thanks!” Danny smiles, his white teeth against his tan complexion lighting up his entire face.  
“So uh, where did the boys go?” Lydia asks, tucking her arms around her chest as a chilly breeze picks up.  
Danny gives a quick glace to Emily before speaking. “Derek was having issues with his neighbor; the boys went over there to help.”  
“Do they need us?” Allison digs her hands into her jacket pockets.  
Danny shakes his head. “Erica’s already there and plus the boys… they said they’d call if they needed you guys.” Lydia and Allison both nod. “Scott said he’ll let you know when they’re finished but that it’ll probably be a long night.”  
“Okay, thanks for letting us know.”  
Danny then turns his full attention towards Emily, allowing her a much better look at the new boy. His brown eyes are tired and sweat is piled up around his matted hairline but his smile forms dimples in his cheeks as he holds out his hand. “You must be Emily.”  
“Yea!” Emily stumbles; shifting her camera to her other hand before shaking Danny’s out reached one.  
“Sorry I missed you at lunch this afternoon. I had a test to make up.” Danny rolls his eyes playfully.  
“It’s okay. It’s nice meeting you.”  
“You too,” Danny nods. “Isaac wanted me to let you know that he’ll try and get in contact with you this weekend, but if not, he’ll find you first thing on Monday.”  
“Oh-okay!” Emily can’t help the laughter that spills from her lips as she pushes her hair over her shoulder. “Thanks.”  
“No problem. I better get going before all the hot water is used up.” Danny throws his thumbs over his shoulder to the two metal doors.  
“See you tomorrow.” Allison waves her friend off.  
“What trouble does a neighbor cause that Derek needs five teenage boys and Erica to help him?” Emily asks, slipping her arm through the other strap of her book bag.  
“He’s really vicious…deranged… totally has claws.” Lydia flips everything over, thinking of the best way to describe the man to Emily.  
“He loves to fight.” Allison adds. “Derek likes the boys there as back up and Erica always goes to make sure things don’t get out of hand.”  
“Oh.” Emily bites her lip as they continue their way to the parking lot. She isn’t sure how she feels with the new information that Isaac went to go fight with someone. She deals with enough violence and fighting at home. Allison never did say that Isaac himself fought, just that he was used as back up – for the numbers Emily supposes. Besides, Isaac didn’t seem like the type that would fight. Still, as much as she likes the shy, slightly older boy, she doesn’t know if she can deal with any more fighting.  
“Which way do you live from here?” Lydia asks as they walk up to her car.  
“I live about ten minutes away. I can just walk.” Emily fiddles with her bag’s straps as she bounces on her heels.  
“Don’t be silly, it’s 9:30 at night. I can give you a ride.”  
“It’s okay, I walk it every day. It’s not exactly a bad neighborhood.”  
“Well, how about this: Isaac would literally kill Lydia and I both if he found out we let you walk home alone at night. So, to save both of our lives, you should let us take you home.” Allison ends her plea with a large smile.  
Emily looks between the two girls and the dark pathway she would be heading down on the walk. She’s walked the path plenty of times late at night on her way home from work, but an uneasy feeling hung in the early March air that she just couldn’t seem to shake off.  
“If it’s not too much trouble?” Emily pulls her shoulders up, brows raised at Lydia and Allison.  
“Let’s go.” Lydia smiles, pushing the unlock button on her keys.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *There is abuse in here of Emily from her Dad, it's not a lot, but it might still be a trigger to someone out there*

Emily pokes her tongue out slightly, her brows kitting together as she punches numbers into her calculator. Leaves and rain dance together in the raging storm outside the diner’s windows as the thunder mixes with the jazz music playing softly from the speakers.  
As Emily scratches the back of her ponytail, a small, busty, tan skinned older woman pushes open the swinging door separating the kitchen and the counter. She’s carrying a steaming plate of fries and chicken fingers. She looks over at Emily and drops her shoulders, shaking her head. Grabbing a set of rolled silverware from the stock pile, the woman heads over to the stressed teen.  
“Here is your plate. I’m going to take this bag and your books and you’re going to go over in that corner booth and take a break.” The woman hovers the plate of food over Emily’s book and notebook.  
“Ah, come on Miss. Neoma. I’m just doing my Math homework.” Emily protests, still taking the plate from the small woman on the other side of the counter.  
“You’ve been doing your homework for the past two hours while this storm is hiding all of our customers. You’re making my brain hurt.” She points the napkin wrapped utensils towards Emily as the girl blushes. “Now take a thirty minute break from homework and eat some brain food.”  
“Can I at least take my camera?” Emily asks shyly, slipping the rolled napkin out of Miss. Neoma’s hand.  
“Take your camera, take that plate, and take a break.”  
“Thanks Miss. Neoma.” Emily smiles, sliding off the bar stool the same time she pulls her camera out of her school bag.  
“Shoo.” Miss. Neoma waves her hands frantically in front of her, moving Emily away from her textbooks. Emily giggles softly to herself as she walks over to the beat up corner booth.  
Dropping onto the soft plastic, Emily bounces over to the window and settles in. She dips a few fries in the ketchup she squirts on her plate before dusting her fingers off and flicking her camera on. She hasn’t gotten the chance to look at last night’s games’ photos due to her chores she had to get done before work, so she is excited to see how they turned out.  
After flipping through the photos of the skateboarders she took after school, Emily gets to the beginning of the photos for the game. There are a few shots of the huddle; both with the coach and some without.  
The next shots were Jackson, his back to her as he pressed into the shoulder of the opposing player, the ball on the ground between them, as they waited for the referee to blow the whistle for their face off.  
Emily presses through the next couple of shots of another face off as she grabs a chicken strip and begins nibbling on it, stopping her quick clicking on the series of photos of Scott pulling his lacrosse stick back and whipping it forward, scoring the second goal for the team. She makes a mental note to show Allison them on Monday, knowing the girl would like them.  
The shots preceding those were of Coach Finstock’s face gradually reddening as more salvia flies out of his mouth as he yells at the boys.  
The flash of the number 14 slows Emily down as she wipes her greasy hand on her work apron and pulls the camera closer to her. Isaac towers over the player he is defender against as he grips tight onto his lacrosse stick. He isn’t doing much besides a few steps here and there and a few glances to the other team’s player but Emily still allows the smile to spread across her face. The boy may be a tall giant, but Emily doesn’t think he could hurt a fly.  
Almost seeming to prove her point, the next series of photos has Isaac and Boyd running together towards an opposing player with the ball. Isaac slams into his right shoulder as Boyd slams into his left, sending the player onto his back and the ball flying out of his pocket. As the play continues out of the frame, the camera has captured Isaac holding his hand out, helping the player back to his feet. They both seem to give each other a nod before going on with the game.  
Erica is on her feet cheering, her curls bouncing as she jumps, throwing her arms in the air as she tosses her head back in the next photo. Boyd had grabbed the ball and was heading for the goal, scoring another one for the team due to his quick feet and ability to dodge everyone.  
When the team takes a timeout, Emily had turned her camera to Lydia and Allison as they giggled over Scott and Stiles tripping over one another on their way to the sideline. Lydia has an open smile, her teeth poking out under her lips as her eyes squished under her pushed up cheeks – she wasn’t even trying to hide her laughter. Allison on the other hand is hunched over, her smile hiding behind her palm in the second hand embarrassment she has for her boyfriend.  
As Emily finishes up her fries she clicks through a few photos until she gets to the ones she took of Stiles. He has a carefree, yet determined and focused stance on him until about four pictures in when he’s staring off to the other side of the field. Even with his facemask on and from the fifth row of bleachers the girls were sitting at, the camera still captures the frightened look Stiles has in his eyes. He glances back towards the field in the last one, which Emily can only assume he’s looking toward Scott.  
Emily sits back, causing the plastic under her to creak as she lays her camera down on the table. She wishes she had gotten a photo of the guy on the other side of the field, but she had been way too curious as to why Stiles had reacted that way to him. She remembers the guy’s big shoulders and the way he stood with his arms at his side – almost as if he was ready to claw someone’s eyes out. She didn’t even know the story behind him but she knew he was up to no good.  
Grabbing the last piece of chicken in one hand and her camera back in the other, Emily begins looking through the few remaining photos.  
Scott’s running up to Jackson, trying to talk with him but the co-captain shrugs him off and gets himself ready for a face off in the next few photos.  
Getting to pictures of Isaac and Boyd, Emily immediately notices the change in the boys. They still had their backs to the goal but they seem to be protecting Danny instead of focusing on not allowing a player with a ball to pass through. Their hands were no longer gripping tight to their lacrosse sticks but rather loose, as if ready to drop them in any second.  
On a photo of Isaac apologizing to Coach, there’s a glare across where his eyes are. Emily doesn’t think anything of it, guessing the field lights must have hit the protective bars of his facemask weird.  
But then the camera’s memory clicks to the photo of the dark hard, scolding guy in a simple button down V-neck and jeans, despite the chilly weather. What should have been a normal picture of him looking at Stiles was ruined due to what looks like a flash coming from where the eyes were.  
Emily frowns.  
She flips the camera around to see if there was a smudge on the lens but all she sees is clean glass. Rotating the camera back, she clicks it over to capture and aims it at a middle-aged couple half way across the diner. Focusing in on the greying, dark haired man, she snaps a shot.  
Looking back on the photo, she can clearly see the gentleman’s green eyes perfectly. She must have had the camera on a weird setting and didn’t know the night before. She’s had this camera for years, she knows it in and out, and she’s never seen it do this before. But maybe, with age, it’s going out.  
“Hey Sweetie, I hate to do this to you since you still have ten minutes left to your break…” Miss. Neoma trailed away.  
“Need me back on the clock?” Emily smiles as she looks up at her aging boss.  
“If you don’t mind, the storm let up and two cars full of teenagers just pulled in; think you can handle them?”  
“There’s no table I can’t handle.” Emily wrinkles her nose in a smile, clicking the camera back off and pushing the worry of having to possibly buy a new camera to the back of her mind.  
“You’re my favorite teenage waitress.” Miss. Neoma says as Emily slides out of the booth.  
“I’m your only teenage waitress.” Emily playfully rolls her eyes as she hands her empty plate and camera over to Miss. Neoma, knowing the older woman would be careful with her precious equipment and walks over to the group of teens piling around a large table.

She knows something was off the moment she opens the door a little before midnight and the glow from the TV isn’t laminating the hallway. Knowing she has about five seconds to get up the stairs to the safety of her locked bedroom door, Emily quietly jumps onto the wood. If she is quiet enough, her Dad might dismiss the door opening as one of their neighbors and she will be able to make it to her room. Forgetting she is in her work shoes and not her regular converses, she neglects the slightly extra weight and presses onto the middle of the forth, squeaky step.  
The wood groans beneath her and Emily’s heart jumps in her throat as her eyes enlarge in fear.  
“Emillette!” Her Dad’s deep voice snaps from inside the dark kitchen. “Get your no good, lazy ass in here!” When Emily doesn’t move right away, he barks, “Now!”  
She scrambles down, quickly tucking her book bag with her camera inside behind the coatrack, knowing it will be safe from being used against her.  
She slowly makes her way down the short hall to the kitchen, trying to postpone the inevitable. She may not like when her Dad drinks his nights away on his chair but when he’s not in it is when fear sets in for Emily.  
Upon reaching the doorframe she stops, trying to see in but with the moon hiding behind the remaining storm clouds, there was no light.  
“Well turn on the damn light. What are you stupid?”  
Emily’s arm shakes as she reaches to the wall and pushes the switch up. The light flickers briefly before lighting up the darkened room. Her Dad, still in his black slacks and dress shirt from work, stands, leaning against the kitchen counter. His arms tighten across his chest the same time his brown eyes darken. “Did you do all your chores this morning?”  
Not trusting her voice to be anything above a whisper, Emily stiffly nods her head.  
“I want spoken words!”  
“Y-y-yes I-I did. Before I left for work.”  
“And you got all of them done?”  
“Yes… I made sure.”  
Emily’s Dad tightens his jaw in thought. Pushing himself off the counter, he motions his daughter over with his finger. “I want you to see something then.”  
Emily already knows what she’s walking into won’t be pretty but she also knows what will happen if she doesn’t do what he says. Trying to keep her rigid breathing down so he Dad won’t hear it, she steps over to him.  
“I want you to look at this counter top.” He says, stepping aside and allowing Emily easier access to it. Emily carefully looks him over for any foreign objects he might use on her but she sees none. She steps up to the counter and looks down, immediately noticing the small crumbs of bread laying on the dark grey, laminate countertop.  
She freezes.  
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Her Dad’s voice is dripping with venom and Emily senses the attack coming soon.  
“Bread crumbs?” Emily’s voice shakes.  
“Exactly.” Her Dad’s teeth are clench tightly. “So if you did your chores this morning,” A hand tangles itself into her ponytail and yanks her back into her Dad’s chest. “Why is there bread crumps on my counter?!” He screams into Emily’s ear.  
“I’m sorry!” Emily cries out, trying to loosen her Dad’s grip on her hair. “I made a sandwich on my way out to work. I thought I clean it all. I’m sorry! I’ll clean it up now. I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!” She pleads.  
“You’re damn right you’re sorry.” He growls, shoving her forward and down. Heading straight for the corner of the countertop, Emily throws her arms out and catches herself but the countertop is too smooth and slick and she slides off, the corner slicing open the skin just above her right eyebrow as she drops down. Her body slams onto the tiled floor and she can already feel blood trickle down her temple.  
“I can’t believe your Mother left me alone to watch a bastard like you.”  
Lifting her hand off the floor to wipe the blood away from her eye, Emily doesn’t see her Dad’s foot as it slowly pulls back and is then swiftly brought forward as he kicks Emily’s stomach.  
Emily’s cry is swept away with all of her air as she curls into herself. Tears escape her eyes as she coughs and gags to get air back in her body.  
“If you get blood on the floor, make sure you clean it up.” Her Dad says before walking out of the kitchen, flipping off the light as he exits.  
The fire scorching in her stomach is torture and Emily wants nothing more then to press her temple onto the cool tile floor to relief a fraction of the pain she was feeling, but she knows from experience how hard it was to get blood off the kitchen floor.  
Turning onto her left side, she tightens her arms around her stomach, pressing into the sensitive flesh as she folds around the corner of the counter. She can’t believe she forgot to wipe off the breadcrumbs. It was a simple mistake but a foolish one to make at her house with her Dad.  
Her eyes are heavy and with each blink it becomes harder and harder for her to keep them open. It takes every fiber in her to fight against it but she knows she shouldn’t fall asleep. Not here. Not on the floor in the kitchen.  
But everything hurts so badly. Fire licks in her stomach at every breath and her head feels like a stick of dynamite has exploded within it. Her body is fighting; pushing; screaming at her to just let it go and give in, let herself sleep so it can rebuild itself.  
She’s just getting ready to give in when a pale blue light shines down in on her through the window. Opening her sunken eyes slowly, she lifts them up to see the moon peaking out from behind the clouds. She remembers the warning Isaac gave her two nights ago and that somehow frightens her of being near the kitchen door now.  
Fumbling to her hands and knees, she reaches out and gently pulls herself up, grunting as she tries to get the fire at bay. With one arm still wrapped tightly around her stomach, Emily hunches over as she runs the side of her palm over the counter top, pushing the bread crumbs into her arm until she could no longer feel them on the surface anymore. She glances down to see she hasn’t gotten any blood on the tile before shuffling across the floor and out of the kitchen, pushing as many thoughts about the pain out of her mind.  
Passing by the coatrack, a thought runs through her brain that she should just leave her book bag there but her camera is in it and she doesn’t want to give her Dad any chance of possibly breaking her only thing she holds valuable. Emily reaches around the long winter coat of her Dad’s and grabs the tattered bag, tugging it free.  
The bag isn’t heavy but in her current state of being she doesn’t even try to lift it up to her shoulders. Instead, she oulls it along side her as she slowly and painfully makes her way up the stairs to her room, using the wall as support along the way.  
She drags herself and her bag into her room and sighs relieved she has made it. Releasing the bag’s handle from her grip, she lets it drop to the floor as she uses her whole body to press the door shut, securely locking it in place.  
Her head is pounding and she doesn’t waste any time getting to her bed, dropping down into the layers of sheets and pillows. Not caring if she gets blood all over her pillow, Emily buries her head into the cool fabric.  
She’s safe from anymore of her Dad’s outburst, at least for now with the locked door between them. She relaxes, feeling her entire body giving in to the sleep it’s been fighting for. The last thing Emily remembers is the photo of Isaac with the glare across his eyes flashing across her memory before she slips into darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What are the results of the beating Emily took from her Dad and her thoughts on if the pack actually went to fight on Friday.

Emily grimaces as she presses liquid foundation on and around the scabbed over gash above her right eyebrow. The injury isn’t pretty, but it’s better then the pile of dried up blood she woke up to early Sunday evening. With the last of the make up on her finger applied, she pulls her body back away from the sink and drops her shoulders.  
She can do this. This is no different from any other time she’s gone to school with the aftermath of battle wounds from her Dad. This one was just a little harder to hide.  
Teething her bottom lip, she can’t remove her eyes from the ugly mount she sees before her. She lifts her hand up to pull out a bobby pin in the side of her hair and gently sweeps the pieces across her forehead, covering up the scab with her new bangs.  
Emily leans down to drop the bottle of foundation and bobby pin into her open book bag, not bothering to quiet her painful wince. With a shaking hand wrapped around the porcelain sink, she pulls herself up again, bringing her other hand to join it’s partner as she lets the burning ache pass over.  
The fire in her stomach’s muscles doesn’t completely dissipate but she’s able to step back from the bathroom sink and stand on her own without the worry of toppling over after a minute or so. With a slow, deep breath, Emily curls her fingers around the hem of her shirt and pulls the fabric up around her breasts.  
Looking at her stomach from above was bad enough, but seeing it in the speckled reflection of the girl’s bathroom mirror was grisly. The black and blue blotch covered most of her left side, the main impact having had been just under her ribs.  
Bunching her shirt all in her left hand, she slides her right hand down towards the impact sight. In her mind she wants to press into it to make sure nothing is sticking out, but the fear of the pain over powers her yearning and she simply dances her fingers over the damage.  
She catches sight of her right wrist, now a fading yellow color, and shifts away the forming smile. It hasn’t really hurt since that past Friday at lunch when Isaac touched it, but right now Emily doesn’t know what she thinks of him and his friends. She likes them, and everyone, with the exception of Jackson, were nice and friendly towards her, but if what Danny said was true and the boys went to fight with someone, she doesn’t know if she wants the added violence.  
Emily gasps, quickly tugging her shirt down when the door to the restroom pushs opened. She keeps her eyes forward, adding to the act that she’s fixing her shirt as three senior girls filter in. They all seem to raise their brows at one another at the sight of Emily at the sink.  
Two of the girls go into stalls as the third walks up to the far sink and begins fluffing her bleach blonde hair. She turns her head and sends a fake smile towards Emily before pulling lip gloss out of her bag and turning her attention back to her own reflection.  
Emily mentally preps herself for the pain she’s going to feel in the next few seconds and before she talks herself out of it, she quickly bends down, gathers up her jacket and book bag and snaps upright. She swallows down the sob of pain and rushes out of the restroom. She knows what she looks like; she doesn’t need the confirmation of an upperclassman to sneer at it.  
Hugging her unzipped bag to her chest, Emily dodges the other students as they begin filling the halls before school. If she gets to her locker fast enough, she can get out of the halls and hopefully finish the last few math problems left on her homework before class starts. She ducks her head as she approaches a group of boys talking and slides her way around them to her locker. Skimming the lock’s dial, she tugs the metal door open.  
As the boys burst out in hoots and howlers, Emily winces. She wants nothing more then to walk out the school’s front doors and curl up somewhere – the be away from people, but she knows that won’t accomplish anything. Besides, she has nowhere to go, it’s been raining since late last night and her house is the last place she wants to be. A shiver runs down her spine at the thought of her home and she closes her eyes, shaking her head to vanish the memory of the other night. She just wants to forget.  
“I like your bangs.”  
At the sudden voice so close to her, Emily snaps her eyes open with a deep breath. Her heart slides back down her throat when she sees Isaac’s concerned expression on the other side of her locker’s door as he holds his hands up in innocence.  
“I’m - I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” He stampers.  
“No, it’s okay,” Emily shakes her head. She lifts her hand up to run it through her hair but then remembers her forehead and throws her hand up. “Just a bit jumpy I guess.” She turns her attention into the contents of her locker.  
“Sorry I didn’t get ahold of you this weekend, it was… pretty busy. But uh… how was yours?” Isaac scratches at the back of his neck.  
The gesture was cute and Emily wishes she could smile at him but she can’t bring herself to think about anything beside the desire to hide away. “It was okay.” She answers back with a small shrug of her shoulders.  
Upon receiving her answer, Isaac pushes himself off from leaning against the lockers, his face filling with worry and concern as he leans slightly closer to her. “Is everything alright? Did something happen?”  
Emily freezes slightly upon reaching into her locker for a notebook. There’s no way he could be talking about her Dad. She’s been good at hiding it for eight years, there’s no way she’s slipping up now. So instead of answering him, she asks him a question of her own. “Did you go to a fight after the game Friday?”  
“Did I what?” Isaac takes a small step back, his face scrunched in confusion.  
“Go to a fight? Danny said you guys and Erica went over to Derek’s to fight a neighbor of his? Lydia and Allison even backed it up.”  
“That’s… not exactly what happened.”  
“So what exactly did happen?” Emily’s voice is cold, but if she wanted an answer that still beats around the bush, she wouldn’t have even asked the question.  
Isaac looks like he’s having an internal battle within himself before he scrunches his face up. “I can’t tell you.”  
She doesn’t know what hurts more: the fact that he just admitted to going to a fight, or the fact that he’s not telling her the truth.  
“I should go.” Emily mumbles, her heart crushed with sadness. She had hoped all weekend that it wasn’t true, that Danny had misheard the information, but it wasn’t.  
“Wait, Emily,” Isaac reaches out but freezes, shaking his head again slowly as she closes her locker door. “That’s not the whole story.”  
“It-.” Emily swallows the large lump in her throat. “I can’t be around people who result to violence to solve their issues. I’ve seen what it does.”  
Isaac looks at her as if he wants to say something, but instead he adverts his eyes down to the floor beside her as he begins running his thumb over his fingers. “What if violence is the only answer left to guarantee those you care about stay safe?”  
He slowly raises his eyes back up to Emily but she’s shaking her head, her bottom lip quivering slightly. “I’ve got to get to class.” Her voice cracks.  
Turning on her heels, she quickly hurries off, holding her breath tightly so the tears don’t fall.

It’s not until Emily is in the middle of the locker room three classes later and is bending down to take her shoes of does a painful stab race through her mid-drift and halts her actions. She bites the inside of her lip, wincing softly as she slowly lowers herself down onto the bench. There is no way she’s going to make thirty-five minutes of being completely active without curling up in the fetal position.  
“Are you okay?” Erica was suddenly leaning against the beaten up grey lockers. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail and instead of her usual tight fitted shirt and skinny jeans; she now wears an old pair of faded shorts and a white BEACON HILLS PHYSICAL EDUCATION shirt.  
Emily also has this class with Stiles … and Isaac. She knows she can’t avoid them forever, but if she can get away with a few classes here and there, she’ll take it.  
“Cramps,” Emily purses her lips, looking up. “I’ll probably skip out on gym today.”  
“Are you sure it’s just cramps?” Erica takes a step towards Emily. “And not something else?” The look on her face clearly tells Emily she knows she’s lying, but she doesn’t push her.  
“Yea,” Emily says, even though she shakes her head. “I should go tell Coach Guise I’m sitting out.” She gathers all of her things, and for the second time that day, rushes out of the room with her belongings piled in her arms.  
She finds the Coach of the boy’s basketball team already in the gym. His white polo shirt tucked around his no longer athletic form and into his grey sweatpants. A grey whistle clicks against the clipboard in his hands as he flips through papers.  
“Coach Guise.” Emily quietly states as she walks up to him.  
“Yes?” He doesn’t bother looking up from his sheet on his clipboard.  
“Well, you see, I’m kind of – it’s that time of the month for me, and my craps… they’re really-.” She stops her rambling as soon as Coach Guise holds up his hand.  
“I really don’t want to hear about your monthly issues Miss. Hatford. I get enough of that at home between my wife and three daughters. If you would like to take a half credit day and sit on the bleachers, just tell me.”  
“I would like to take a half credit day.”  
“Alright. I’ll mark you down, but I want to see you doing homework and not taking a nap when I look up there.” He points a sausage finger at Emily over his clipboard.  
“Of course.” Emily nods. She scurries off to the bleachers, climbing halfway up and getting comfortable.  
She had left her math items back in her school locker and she didn’t have anything else to do, so she simply pulls a notebook out and sits quietly, doodling onto the pages whenever Coach Guise looks her way. The class was doing tag group suicide runs and mountains climbs, so she is extremely glad she chose to sit out because there was no way she could have handled that without causing at least some concern from people.  
Emily catches Isaac’s eyes more then once as she watches her class run the course. She usually glances away or swiftly drops her head down to her notebook, but around the fourth or fifth time, something in her makes her hold the gaze.  
Isaac is staring at her from across the sidelines of the far end court and although the classmates around him are red faced and heaving, Isaac stands as if in line at the grocery store, his grey BEACON HILLS P.E. shirt baring no sweat stains.  
It felt as if he was studying her, really looking deep and trying to figure her out, looking for a way to talk with her. Emily holds a blank, emotionless face as she stares back, trying to give him just as an equal of a look. The hold lasts for a minute or so until the boy behind Isaac gives him a shove and points, indicating it’s his turn to go.  
After that, Emily avoids the teen’s eyes. She does catch Stiles’, who enlarges them and nudges them over to Isaac’s direction, but Emily shakes her head and looks away.  
When the Coach finally blows his whistle, sending the class back to the locker rooms to change in five minutes, Emily let’s out a loud sigh. She’s only two and a half hours into the school day and her head is already beginning to throb. If it was from the injury on her forehead or the inner battle she’s fighting with herself over Isaac, she doesn’t know. What she does know if that she still has five hours divided into six classes left, and she would still rather ignore the world.  
With a minute left until the bell rings, Emily shoves her notebook back into her book bag, zips it up, and begins her descent down the bleachers.

Walking into her food science class, she looks up to the board to see who her partner is for the brownie experiment they’ve been working on since last Thursday and drops her shoulders. Boyd. She’s not doing very well with avoiding these people.  
Getting right to it, Emily deposits her bags on the table and gets to her assigned station, setting to work. Boyd walks in a minute later, drops his bag on the same table, and comes straight over. They compare their receipts and decide on Boyd’s.   
It’s not until the brownies are in the oven and they’re cleaning up does Emily finally ask, “You’re not going to try and persuade me to talk to Isaac?” She’s already had Stiles talking behind her constantly in History and Allison probably would have tried if Emily hadn’t quickly dodged down a side hallway first.  
“Do you want me to?” Boyd asks back as he dunks a chocolate covered spoon into the sink.  
“Not really, no.” Emily replies as she runs the towel around the inside of the green bowl.  
Boyd shrugs. “It’s not my place.”  
He hands her the wooden spoon. “Thanks.” She says softly as she begins drying the utensils off. He gives her a small smile, as it saying ‘no problem” and drops three measuring cups into the water.  
They stay quiet again for the rest of class, cutting the brownies up and placing them into to go boxes – Boyd taking a mess majority of them, which was fine with Emily.

Being a library aid instead of taking a free period allows Emily to relax with a bit of a distraction, if only for forty-five minutes. Balancing a small stack of books in her hands, she walks deeper into the shelves. She starts humming to herself as she finds the exact spot the top books goes in.  
“Can I ask you a question?” Someone asks from the end of the shelf.  
“Just give me one second,” Emily finds the spot she’s looking for and slides the book into place. “What cane I help you with?” she asks as she turns her attention down the aisle. Her friendly smile drops when she sees the black haired, tanned skinned boy leaning against the wood.  
“Don’t you have class?” Emily asks Scott as she moves down the aisle away from him.  
“This is my free period actually,” Scott shrugs his shoulders as he slowly follows her.  
“Oh, well, the free period study tables are over by the Non-Fiction section.” Emily nudges her head over her right shoulder.  
“Thanks, but that’s not my question.”  
“If you’ve come here to persuade me to talk to Isaac, you all really need to take a lesson from Boyd.” Emily stops in front of a new section of books and begins searching for the top book’s location.  
“Yea, I totally will,” Scott nods his head. “But I want you to hear me out first because Isaac – we didn’t do what you think we did.”  
“The rest of you keep saying that, but Isaac openly admitted that’s what happened.” Emily rolls her eyes softly, still searching for the book’s placement. She loves the dedication Isaac’s friends seem to have for him, and deep down, she wishes she had people who had her back too, but this was all beginning to annoy her.  
“We did go to Derek’s to help him fight, but it was more for numbers – to freak out his neighbor more then anything. Isaac’s not a fighter, not without reason. He’s usually the last one to fight but if any of us are in trouble, he’s the first one there. He does what he feels is right, and some times that’s just to help us out.”  
“Okay, so he didn’t fight Friday night. But you guys went looking for one, and that’s almost just as worst.”  
“The only person who goes looking for fights is Jackson and that’s why the rest of us are there – to hopefully talk him out of it.”  
“Why are you so hell bent on me talking to Isaac?” Emily drops her shoulders, her brows raised in annoyance.  
“We’re all really close. Isaac said it perfectly when we met you – we’re a pack. You’re the first girl that’s really caught Isaac’s eye; and when he came up to us Friday morning and said he’s going to try and bring someone to the lunch table – you can laugh but, the rest of us were pretty excited about it too. It may not seem like it, but we care about each other’s happiness as much as our own.”  
Emily pulls the right side of her bottom lip between her teeth and slows all of her movements. Her finger plays with the plastic covering over the book on the top of her stack as she avoids looking to her left at Scott. Maybe she jumped to conclusions about Isaac and him fighting, but she doesn’t know him all that well. Shouldn’t she at least give him a chance?  
“I just wanted you to know that about Isaac and about us; we’re not all bad.” Emily kept her eyes avoided. “And I also wanted to let you know that there’ll be a seat for you at the lunch table is you want it.”  
Emily looks up to him to tell him she’ll think about it but the tan boy is already gone. Whipping her head around trying to find him, she gives up only after a few glances. He said what he had wanted to say and he left.  
As everything swirls around in her head, Emily sits the books down on the shelf and leans lightly against it. Not everyone is her Dad she knows that, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have trust issues. But Isaac, and the rest of the group are different, they’ve already proved that today. So why is she locking the steel door so tightly on them this soon?  
Maybe she’s scared of being let down. She’s had so much disappointment in her life already, that adding more to it will probably break her at the seams. But things were different; she can feel it as if the rest of her already knows. She doesn’t understand how she knows, but maybe, instead of Isaac always protecting those he cares about, he needs protection of his own.  
She catches sight of the clock on the wall and turns, grabbing the stack of books and getting back to work. She knows what she’s finally going to do; she just hopes her fears don’t talk her out of it before she gets the chance.

The grey tray wobbles in her hands as Emily steps out of the lunch line. She scans the noisy room filled with juniors and seniors already eating and chatting away with one another. Her usual far corner table is unoccupied but her eyes jump right over it to the large round table three over.  
Stiles is buried into a book, his lunch tray pushed in front of him as a pencil scurries over a notebook. He turns to look at Lydia to his right, and after she takes a bite of her turkey wrap, she points into his book, moving her finger around the page. Stiles nods along with the movement and begins scribbling again. Allison comments and points to something else in the book. Stiles looks up towards it again, reads, and then writes some more.  
Scott is in conversation with Jackson and Danny across the table. There are a lot of eye burrows from both Jackson and Scott as Danny draws something in the air in front of himself. Scott even turns to Boyd at one point but the large teen shrugs his shoulders, his back to Emily so she can’t see his facial expression.  
Erica walks up to the table then, sliding into the seat next to Boyd with grace at the same time as she kisses his cheek and steals a little smokie off his tray.  
Isaac’s not at the table yet, but Emily still begins walking towards it. She’s been a bit stand offish to most of the members filling up the table, and even though Scott invited her, it doesn’t mean the other will be okay with it. She wishes she had something to fiddle with as she inches closer but she settles on hugging the rim of her tray, her knuckles turning white from the grip.  
“Hi Emily!” Allison chirps, a large smile on her face.  
“I see you’re feeling better.” Erica turns her head to Emily. “You can sit here,” she pushes the chair out enough so Emily can step up to the table.  
“You guys don’t hate me?”  
“Na, a mass pit of confusion, we’ve all been there,” Stile waves his free hand about.  
“Sorry about that, it was my choice of words that caused the disarrangement.” Danny sends Emily an apologetic smile.  
“Disarr-what? Why can’t you just say confusion?” Stile whips his head up.  
Lydia snaps her fingers in front of Stiles’ eyes. “I did not spend my entire Sunday tutoring you in Chemistry for you to not get the actual assignment done.”  
Stiles sends her a quick look of annoyance before getting back to his assignment.  
“Emily?” Isaac’s voice questions as he walks up to the table with his tray. “Are you eating lunch with us?”  
“If – if that’s okay with you.” Emily tucks herself into her shoulder slightly, afraid of his rejection.  
“Yea!” Isaac’s entire face lit up with the quick nods he gives. “Of course!”  
Emily gives him a large smile and she sits down with him the same time Boyd pulls the to go box from his book bag and drops them in the center of the table. “Emily and I made these in food class.”  
“Brownies!” Scott cheered as he launches himself to the container.  
She may not know what exactly happened on Friday night, but she wants to give Isaac – and his friends – a chance she believes they deserve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks... my gym class did let us sit out if we were girls - but we usually took a half credit day and had to do this stupid worksheet thing so... yea.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Group Study at Derek's Loft

“I’ll meet you guys in class.” Allison waves to Isaac and Emily before linking hands with Scott and walking away from the tray drop off window.  
“I’m not giving an excuse if you’re late!” Isaac calls out as he sits his tray down.  
“Just save me a seat!” Allison smiles over her shoulder before facing forward again as Scott and her disappear out of the cafeteria.  
“I need to run to my locker. Please save me a seat that’s not next to that asthmatic wannabe debate champion.” Jackson quickly dumps his tray’s contents into the trash and then tosses the tray onto the window.  
“Larry Witz?” Emily asks as she dumps her tray.  
“Sure,” Jackson’s brows both raise high. “If that’s his name. I just don’t want a seat by him, he argues with everything I say.”  
Emily is slightly confused because – isn’t that what debate is all about? Before she can voice her thought though, Jackson is already out the cafeteria door with Lydia and Danny.  
“See you in English, Emily. And you after school, Isaac.” Stiles says without looking up from his chemistry book. He turns to take a step to the left when Isaac grabs his shoulders and turns him around ninety degrees. “Thanks.”  
“I got him.” Erica smiles, slipping one arm around the hook of Stiles’ right elbow while yanking the book out of his hands with her other hand.  
“Hey!” Stiles’ brown eyes shoot up franticly.  
“Relax. I’m helping you get to math class in one piece.” Erica shakes her head, tucking the textbook under her free arm. Boyd gives Isaac and Emily a small wave before following Stiles and Erica out.  
“So… to physics?” Isaac raises his shoulders with the question.  
“Lead the way.” Emily throws her right arm out and swings it out to her side.  
They walk in silence for a few passing classrooms side by side until they pass by the main office and Isaac speaks up. “Erica said you weren’t feeling good back in P.E. Are you okay now?”  
“Oh yea,” Emily frowns slightly, hooking her thumbs around her shoulder straps. “I just had some…” she searches for a word that wouldn’t scare Isaac off.  
“Cramps?”  
Emily whips her head towards Isaac, her face mixed with shock and confusion because this boy next to her just said the word ‘cramps’ and even though she doesn’t hang around with guys a lot, she does know they don’t like talking about girl’s problems.  
Isaac’s ears slowly turn pink as he avoids Emily’s eyes. “Yea…Erica’s pretty blunt on those things. Lydia can be too.” He says after a beat.  
Emily tries to hide her chuckle, imagining Isaac listening quietly to Erica complain openly about her period. “At least it’s not a sibling right?” At the sight of Isaac sucking in his bottom lip and holding it between his teeth, Emily immediately begins regretting her last joke. “Sorry if I mentioned a sensitive subject.”  
“Oh no!” Isaac’s eyes got big as he shakes his head. “My brother, Camden, he uh, he past away a few years ago.”  
“I’m so sorry!” Emily cries out, stopping in her tracks. Isaac takes two more steps forwards before realizing she stopped and steps back.  
Instead of seeing a sad, depressing look on Isaac’s face like she suspects, Emily sees a small smile, as well as a distant twinkle in his eyes. “You’re okay. I just don’t talk about him a lot,” he shrugs. “But I was picturing him actually sitting me down and telling me all about his period cramps like Erica does.”  
Emily stays still for a few seconds, her eyes scanning over Isaac’s face as a smile slowly creeps onto hers. “Bet that’s a funny site.”  
“A little bit.” Isaac smirks as they walk into their physics’ room.  
Emily immediately went to her second row table seat near the window. She usually sat next to a different person almost every class, but today Isaac silently hovers in the aisle next to the empty seat. “Is it okay if I sit here?” he asks as he points to the chair.  
“Of course.” Emily nods up at him.  
Isaac grins back at her, sliding his book bag off his shoulders and dropping down into the seat. Once situated, he pulls out a notebook and folder from his bag and pushes them onto the table behind them, placing them in front of the vacant seats.  
Jackson comes in a minute later, quickly making his way to one of the saved seats, but not before sending silted eyes towards Larry Witz on his way past him.  
“He really doesn’t like Larry does he?” Emily notes.  
“Jackson doesn’t like anyone who disagrees with him, no.”  
“I don’t like when people tell me what to do, Lahey. You know the difference between that don’t you?” Jackson cocks his right eyebrow as he slips into the chair behind Emily.  
Emily swears she hears a growl from Isaac but it’s drowned out by the shrill of the bell. As the bell finishes it’s last ring, Allison gracefully slips into the room, sending an innocent smile to Mr. Belt, who waves her off as he stands from his desk chair.  
“Thanks Isaac.” She whispers as she sits down the same time Isaac grabs his folder from her spot.  
“You’re lucky.” He whispers back.

“Alright remember, test tomorrow,” Mr. Belt starts as the bell rang. “10% of your grade!” he shouts over it. “Which means if you fail, it’ll drop you down an entire letter grade!” he says over the hustle and bustle of kids getting their things together.  
“Hey Emily, save me a seat. I’ll be there on time.” Allison sends a teasing, goofy smile to Isaac as she gathers her things and flees the room.  
“Looks like you’re in on her game now.” Jackson mentions before he too stands to his feet and leaves.  
“What are you talking about?” Emily snaps her attention up from zipping up her book bag. “What’s he talking about?” She turns back to Isaac, trying to figure it out.  
“Allison and Scott always meet up between classes and love to push the limit as to when they get to the next one. Allison always asks one of us to ‘save her a seat’ so she can easily slip in.” Isaac informs as he stands up.  
“Glad to know I’m wanted.” Emily purses her lips with a nod. She carefully pulls her book bag strap over her shoulder before standing up, trying to minimize the pain in her stomach. She hasn’t had the chance to check on it since this morning, but find a completely empty bathroom while school was in session is thin.  
“Hey uh, what are you doing after school today?”  
“Probably going home and studying for that test Mr. Belt kept mentioning will be 10% of our grade.” Emily shrugs as they walk out of the classroom.  
“Well, you’re more then welcome to come study with us. We always go over to our – uh, friend, Derek’s loft after school to hang out and do homework…Boyd sometimes cooks? But uh, Allison, Jackson, and I will be studying for the test and you can come and study with us if-if you want.” Isaac says bashfully as the two of them dodge people in the halls.  
“Yea!” Emily’s quick to nod her head. “I’d love to.”  
“Really?” Isaac’s eyes enlarge as he stares at Emily in disbelief. “Awesome!” he shakes his head to rid his shock. “Um Stiles, he usually gives Boyd and I a ride to Derek’s after practice but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind swinging by and picking you up.”  
The sudden thought of a car full of boys pulling up to her house with her Dad possibly home was a nightmare and a shutter ripples through her body, the pain in her stomach lighting up again. “Actually, why don’t I just meet you guys in the back parking lot after you’re done? I’ve got a report to do for one of my classes and I need to go to the library anyway.”  
“Are you sure? Practice usually last until six.”  
“I’m in with the librarian.” Emily tries to make a joke but then realizes how lame it actually sounds and blushes. “I just mean… she’ll let me hang out there until she leaves.” She scuffs her foot on the white tile when they come to a fork in the halls.  
“I’ll meet you in the back entrance of the school closest to the practice field at six?”  
“I’ll be there.” Emily smiles when she catches sight of Isaac’s blue eyes smiling down at her.  
“Awesome. See you after school.” He nods. “I better go meet Erica for our free period.”

Emily shivers slightly as she pulls the sleeves of her jacket around her fingertips. The rain was still trickling down, but not as bad as it had been before school so she wasn’t going to complain about standing in it for a little bit.  
As she scans the horizon, Emily catches sight of a spider web in the corner of a pillar. She smiles at it, admiring the way the rain forms a rainbow on the silk. Afraid it might get ruined; she keeps her eyes on it. As she slips her left strap off her shoulder and unzips her book bag. She only has to dig slightly before her fingers trace the focusing ring and she gently tugs it out. Zipping her bag back up, she slips her arms through the strap again before walking closer to the web.  
Emily flicks her camera on and quickly begins capturing pictures of the weaving from different angles and focuses. That is, until she sees the garden spider slowly make it’s way back to the center of the web. She jumps back slightly when it comes into the focus of her lens and pulls the camera away from her eye to look at the web – still a few feet away.  
A car horn beeps twice from her left and she looks over. Stiles is waving from the front seat as the passenger’s door opens and Boyd steps out, Isaac climbing out of the back a step behind him. Emily smiles as she slides her camera under her jacket to shield it from the weather, careful to keep it on the top half of her body and away from her stomach.  
Isaac begins making his way up to her and meets her halfway. “You get your report done?” He asks when they begin walking back to the jeep.  
“Got more then I was planning on doing, so I’m ahead of the game now.”  
“I saw you taking photos of the spider web and at the game Friday night. Do you still have those?”  
“They’re still on my camera,” Emily lifts the camera slightly in her jacket. “You can look at them later if you want.” She shrugs as they stop by the open passenger’s door.  
“We could look at them at Derek’s after studying?” Isaac looks down at her.  
“If you want.” Emily nods, lifting her eyes up to him.  
“You two have seriously got to stop looking at each other like that.” Stiles’ voice rings through the chilled air. Emily turns to him as he throws an arm over the steering wheel. “Climb on in. Roscoe here is trying to warm up,” He pats and rubs the dashboard.  
“Roscoe?” Emily questions.  
“It’s the name of his jeep.” Boyd comments, keeping his arms folded as he leans against the hinge of the door.  
“If Derek can name his car without question then so can I,” Stiles jabs his finger in Boyd’s direction.  
“Into Roscoe I go.” Emily raises her brows and pulls her lips to the side and steps closer to the car.

Stiles leads the group into the building and pushes buttons on the buzzer without looking and as soon as the person at the other ends picks up, he replies with, “Hey, it’s me,” and there’s a click heard on the door as it unlocks.  
Emily wobbles slightly after them as they head to the elevator. Getting into the jeep had been easier then it had been getting out. Crawling in, she was able to use her right arm to lift herself up and slide over, but when she had to crawl out the passenger’s side because she driver’s seat was jammed, she ended up hitting her left side on the chair and then didn’t land as gracefully as she had hoped to on the ground. Her stomach felt as if it were a new injury and not a day and a half old anymore. She keeps telling the boys she was fine, but Isaac insists on walking behind her, the hovering of his palm on her back was easily felt but Emily doesn’t say anything about it. Though she wasn’t use to being looked after, a small part of her was relaxing in it.  
“So who exactly is Derek?” Emily asks as the elevator’s door slide shut. “You all have mentioned him quite a few times but I’ve never been told exactly who he is.”  
“He’s the only one in the pack not in high school.” Stiles says simply.  
Emily licks her lips and doesn’t ask the other questions she has. She could tell that Derek was a subject she would just have to figure out on her own. She looks over at Isaac whose grip on the elevator’s bar has his knuckles a bright white. As she turns her head slightly to look at him to see if he’s okay, his eyes were staring straight ahead, an emotionless expression on his face. He seems to notice Emily looking at him, in which case he looks down and gives her a weak smile. The elevator dings and she turns around again.  
“Be warned,” Isaac leans close to Emily’s left ear as the doors squeak open and Stiles and Boyd step out. “Derek sometimes isn’t the friendliest person to be around.” He says as the two step out of the elevator and walk down the hall after the other two.  
Boyd snorts from in front of Emily. “That’s an understatement,” He says, keeping his eyes forward as they reach the door.  
Stiles lifts his hand to slide the door over when it’s yanked opened and green eyes are narrowed at Stiles. “Where’s your key?”  
“On my dresser next to my chapstick I forgot this morning when I was running late because I was up all night doing research.” Stiles claps his hands, wobbling on the back of his heels.  
“I didn’t give you a key for you to put it on your dresser, Stiles.” The guy’s voice full of irritation.  
“I’ll put it on my keys when I get home. Can we come in now?”  
The guy doesn’t budge as he turns his attention to Emily and scales his eyes up and down her. Feeling uncomfortable under his judgmental stare, she takes a step back, right into Isaac’s hovering hand. He flattens his palm against the small of her back and Emily quickly feels a rush of relief flood through her.  
“Emily,” Isaac glances down at her. “This is Derek. Derek, this is Emily,” he looks back up to Derek. “She’s a friend of mine. She’s here to study, and hang out with us tonight?” His last part seems to be a question rather then a statement and Emily begins to wonder if she was to be invited or not.  
“Yea, okay,” Derek opens the door more so Stiles and Boyd can walk through. “Can I talk to you a moment?”  
“If it’s not okay that I’m here, I can always walk home.” Emily turns back towards Isaac, ready to leave.  
“No, you’re fine,” Isaac laughs softly as he gently places his right hand on her shoulder. “Lydia and Allison are already in the living room. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you.”  
“Are you sure?” Emily looks up at him doubtfully.  
“Promise.” Isaac says as he leads her into the loft and Derek slides the door closed.  
The windows across the door cast an almost creepy shadow over a wooden table with a solo chair on the raised platform. To the right of that is a small bookshelf of some sort and on the other side of that was a brightly lit area with a long grey couch where Erica, Danny, Lydia, and Allison were already either looking through books or typing away on a laptop. Emily heads over there.  
“Hey, Isaac didn’t tell us you were coming!” Danny says, looking up from his computer when Emily drops her book bag on the side of the couch.  
“He didn’t tell you at practice?” She asks as she sits down on the very edge of the couch.  
“Na, I was in goalie all day. Coach didn’t let me out for any of it.” He says.  
“How far are you on your history paper?” Allison asks as she looks up from a thick book in her lap and tucks a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear.  
“Almost finished. I worked on it while I waited on the boys to get done with practice.”  
“Can I see your sources?” Allison all but jumps up in her seat. “I won’t take anything you’ve written, but I can’t seem to find any reliable sources for the second question.”  
“Oh that’s fine.” Emily scoots around the corner of the couch and tugs her book bag up onto the cushions. She shifts around in her papers for a moment before she pulls out her sources’ paper and hands it over to Allison.  
As they begin discussing the history assignment, Emily can’t help but sneak glances across the large room to the kitchen counter where Derek and Isaac both lean against the grey granite top. Derek, no matter how many times she looks over there, keeps a facial expression of someone who was really ticked off. While Isaac on the other hand, looks like someone who might be going up a creak without a paddle. His shoulders drop lower and lower and his face looks so defeated but at the same time trying not to lose.  
“Is Isaac in trouble?” Emily finally asks after she sees Isaac rub his face.  
“No, Derek’s just a hard ass.” Erica jeers as she sneaks a look up from her copy of Hamlet and smirks in Derek’s direction.  
Derek’s muscles seem to tighten as he glares at Erica. Emily furrows her brows and looks between the two of them. How Derek could have possibly heard that is beyond Emily’s mind because even with perfect hearing she doesn’t think anyone would hear that from that far away.  
Boyd begins descending down the metal spiral staircase from across the room and comes and joins them in the living room area. Instead of sitting on the open cushions of the couch, he sits on the floor in front of Erica’s legs and immediately begins shifting through his bag. When he leans back with a notebook in his hands, Erica leans forward and wraps her arms gently around his neck, kissing the top of his head softly. Boyd lifts her hand and kisses her fingertips.  
As soon as Boyd seems to be comfortable and the couple both lean back, another set of feet in oversized sweats begin descending the stairs and Stiles appears a few steps later, now in a shirt and sweats, his practice bag’s handle in his hands. “Let’s get to ‘spatior’!” he cheers as he walks over to the group.  
“You just said, ‘Let’s get to pacing’.” Lydia says as she flips a page of her book.  
“I said what?” Stiles asks as he plops down on the couch next to Erica.  
“To put it in another word: stalking. Studying in Latin is ‘studebat’.” She looks up and smiles all knowingly at Stiles.  
“Really? God dammit!” Stiles begins digging frantically in his bag for something.  
“Where’s Scott and Jackson?” Emily asks Allison next. She figured Scott and her would be attached at the hip now that school was out. And Jackson, though he hasn’t been the most welcoming in the group, he’s been all together better then the glares she receives from Derek.  
“They’re out doing a run. They’ll be back here in a few minutes probably.”  
Emily doesn’t ask her to clarify because just then Isaac comes and sits down next to her.  
“Is everything okay?” She leans over and whispers.  
“Just a bit of a disagreement we’re having.” He whispers back as Derek walks past them to the other side of the corner couch and sits down with a smack of his hand across Stiles’ feet on his coffee table. Stiles mumbles something under his breath and Derek’s lip twitch upward just slightly as Stiles pulls his feet down.  
“It’s not about me is it?”  
Isaac opens his mouth but then freezes for a beat before replying. “No, he’s just unhappy with me in general right now.”  
“Let’s get to physics!” Allison cheers sarcastically as she dances her textbook around in front of her, her gaze on Isaac and Emily.

Two hours later, Stiles lets out a frustrated growl as he slams his textbook. “If I look at one more Latin word I swear my brain is going to explode…I need some milk,” He throws his book on the couch behind him and climbs over Jackson, who has situated himself on the floor area closest to the flat screen TV Derek has.  
“Who’s hungry?” Boyd asks as he stands to his feet.  
“You making dinner?” Scott asks from his spot on the floor next to Allison.  
“I’m sure I can get something up.” Boyd replies as he maneuvers his way around the limbs of his friends to get out of the living room area.  
“Well then this means homework is officially over,” Erica flips her notebook closed. “Jackson, you and me have a rematch. Danny, Scott, you’re in on this too.” She says as she heads over to the TV and begins messing with a gaming conceal.  
“Stiles, you better be using your cup.” Derek says, keeping his eyes on the giant, medieval book he’s been reading since the teens started their homework and studying.  
“I am!” Stiles shouts as Emily turns her attention over to the kitchen where Stiles is standing next to the refrigerator with an open gallon of milk in his hand. He goes to pull the open mouth to his lip when Derek stops him with, “It’s on the top rack of the dishwasher.”  
Stiles gives him an open eyes, mocking look before slamming the container on the counter and whipping around to yank open the dishwasher’s door.  
“Isaac, you in?” Scott asks as he stands to his feet and takes a controller from Erica.  
“I was actually hoping Emily would show me the pictures she took from the game Friday.” He taps the back of his pen on his notebook and he looks out the side of his eye at  
Emily.  
“I want to see those too!” Allison explains as she pulls herself back onto the couch next to Emily.  
“I have my memory stick, I can pull them up on a computer so you can see them easier if you want?” Emily semi-shrugs as she goes to lean forward but feels the pain in her stomach and pulls back.  
“You can use mine.” Danny says already standing up as he leans back behind him and grabs his laptop off the cushion.  
“Thank you.” Emily smiles as she’s handed the device.  
Allison gets the computer set up as Emily pulls her camera from her bag Isaac hands her and pops out her memory card. She slides it into her adapter and hands it over to Allison. Before they start clicking through the photos, Allison sits the computer on Emily’s lap and let’s her control the motion of the photos.  
The two comment on almost every photo, cracking jokes about the subjects in them. Lydia looks over from her continuing in her homework and adds her thought on a few of them as well. It’s all fun and games until the photo of the glare across Isaac’s eyes while he’s apologizing to the Coach comes up on the screen.  
“Oh.” Allison says softly.  
“Yea, my camera was kind of weird that night towards the end of the game.” Emily scratches at the back of her ear. “It happened again with Derek too,” She clicks to the next photo of Derek. “There must be something wrong with the lens.  
She sees the side look Isaac and Allison both give Derek as he shakes his head, but she can’t tell if it was from the book, Isaac and Allison, or the fact that Scott and Danny were jumping around like kangaroos as they team up against Jackson and Erica on the game they were playing.  
“Sheppard’s Pie is ready. It has peas so I don’t want to hear it.” Boyd points a potato covered cooking spoon in the direction of the living room.  
“Alright!” Stiles cheers as he claps Scott on the back of the shoulder from his spot of viewing the game and then darts towards the kitchen.  
“If you’re hungry we better get over there now. Boyd’s Sheppard’s pie is Stiles’ favorite, and even though she won’t admit it, Lydia will eat as many helpings as she can get.” Isaac says, leaning over to Emily’s left ear, a teasing nature in both his face and voice.  
“At least I don’t have Boyd make me an entire Alfredo Parmesan beef pizza.” Lydia says under her breath but still loud enough for Isaac to hear as she walks quickly past them.  
“It’s so good.” Isaac says as he gets to his feet and holds his hand out. “You’ll see.”  
She bites her inner bottom lip and looks at his slightly calloused hand. To her, it was more then just a hand being offered to help her off the couch, it’s trust – to Isaac, to his friends, to everything that she hasn’t ever had in her life. She smiles slightly, her teeth still pressing into the skin as she lays her on his and allows herself to get pulled up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken me awhile to update - school kind of caught up with me and I got a bit stuck on stuff. But, I won't ever abandon this story without giving you all a note :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isaac has something he wants to ask Emily and the results make her nervous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, it's been a long time since I update, but here is it!!! So sorry for the wait!!!

“You got to go run around in the forest behind the school for class?” Emily asks, rolling an orange between her hands as Isaac and her walk down the sidewalk to her house. It was one of the few days she knew her Dad would still be at work when she got home from school and took Isaac up on his offer to walk her home.  
“It wasn’t as exciting as it sounds. We had to try and find a clover.” Emily scrunches her face up, causing Isaac to chuckle. “Told you.”  
Emily smiles as they continue to walk slowly. She knows she shouldn’t push her luck with the possibility of her Dad coming home very soon and seeing Isaac walking with her, but she didn’t care, she wanted to spend more time with the tall, curly haired shy boy who she met not long ago. Besides, the boys have out of town games both Thursday and Friday and, unless Lydia and Allison have something planned, she wouldn’t see the pack until Monday.  
She notices Isaac becoming more and more fidgety with each step they take closer towards her street, his thumbs running over the knuckles of his clenched fists as he stares off into the far off distance ahead of them. Not wanting to pry, Emily doesn’t ask. But when he stumbles over a risen piece of cement, she’s worried he’s going to hurt himself.  
“Everything okay?” She probes slowly.  
Isaac’s head snaps up to look at Emily, giving her brief access to his enlarged eyes before they mix with a blur of skin as he nods his head. “I’m great!”  
“Are you sure?” Emily can’t help but smile. “You nearly broke your neck on uneven pavement a second ago.” She hitches her thumb back over her shoulder.  
“Are you free…Saturday evening?”  
“Saturday evening?” Emily frowns. “Unfortunately, I have to work – 4:30-midnight.” She peaks over to Isaac and sees his shoulders drop as he bites his bottom lip. “But- I’m free any time before that.”  
“Well…how do you feel about mini-golf?” He asks softly.  
“Mini-golf?”  
“Yea, the course just opened last week and I thought it’d be a bit different then hanging out at Derek’s loft?”  
Emily nods her head as she wrinkles her nose in thought. “Not having Derek glaring at me from across the room would be nice.”  
“That’s his normal face. His glaring face is a little more scrunched up.” Isaac pulls in his eyebrows tighter and forms his lips into a straight line. “A bit like a grumpy cat.”  
Emily hides her giggle behind the orange still in her hand. As much as she doesn’t like to judge anyone without getting to know them, she’s been over at Derek’s loft with everyone these last three nights and the most Derek’s ever said to her was a grunt when she asked where his silverware was the night before. Otherwise, he sits in his spot on the sofa next to Stiles reading.  
“Trust me, I’ve gotten it a million times – I know what it looks like.”  
Emily looks up at the goofy boy beside her, almost amazed by the silliness he mixes with something that she could tell was usually very serious. He was a quiet kid, but she knows he has his moments. “I don’t think I want to know what you guys have done to make Derek mad.” She points a finger teasingly at him. “But uh, don’t you boys have an out of town game the night before?”  
“That we do.” Isaac nods, stuffing his hands into his hoodie’s pocket.  
“I’d hate for you boys to have to get up early the next morning if you don’t have to…”  
“I actually don’t mind. My body is use to little sleep anyway.”  
Emily opens her mouth to question about the other boys when it suddenly clicks inside her head. He wasn’t asking for the whole group, he was asking for just himself. But, she never gets asked out on dates or to hang out with someone one on one, maybe he was just saying how he personally felt. She has to ask. “Are- are you asking me-.”  
“It would only be a date if you say yes.” Isaac is quick to stop her from saying anything else. “If you say no, we could always invite the others…” His ears and cheeks slowly become rosy as his eyes race around the vine covered mailboxes of the apartment complex they are walking pass. “I just thought, it would be a nice chance to get to know each other more, without my friends hanging around as well.” He runs his hand through his curls.  
“I would like to.” Emily tucks her hair behind her ears before the wind can swirl it around. “Just us. I haven’t been mini-golfing since I was little. It’ll be really fun.”  
“Great! I’ll be by your house around ten?”  
“Actually, why don’t we exchange phone numbers? I might not exactly be at home, so I could meet you.” Emily pulls her phone out of her hoodie pocket. Her Dad would freak out just seeing her walking with Isaac, who knows what he would do if Isaac shows up knocking on the front door. She needs to keep both of them safe. “I sometimes get up early to take pictures of the sunrise and every thing before the town wakes up. It might be easier to meet somewhere else.”  
Isaac looks down at Emily’s iPhone as if he’s never seen one before but then reaches out and lifts it from her palm, smiling softly. He quickly types in his information and hands it back to Emily. “There you go. I went ahead and sent a message to myself, so I have yours now too.”

Emily’s phone vibrates on the top of her tightly pulled blue bed sheets and her head pops out of her closet just in time to see the light fade off. She lets the orange fabric slip from her fingers as she steps out of the closet and quickly grabs the device.  
HEY I’M HERE  
Pocketing her phone, she chews her bottom lip as she scans her room quickly. She’s cleaned her room spotless from all her anxiety she had last night. She’s even organized all her medical supplies she has hidden under her bed so that Band-Aids were arranged by size order and color.  
Her phone buzzes again in her pocket and she swings her door open and races down the stairs two at a time, not bothering to stop, as she slams into the door before whipping it open.  
“Hey sorry, I got busy upstairs.” Emily rushes out as she pulls the oak wood back to reveal Allison’s smiling face.  
“You have a doorbell?” Allison questions, tipping the hand with her phone towards the fading yellow button on the side of the house.  
“It’s broken.” Emily winces. “My Dad isn’t the best handy man.”  
“Oh well, that’s okay. I’m ready to help!”  
“Come on in, my room is upstairs.” Emily gestures, stepping aside and letting Allison in.  
“Oh hi!” Emily hears Allison chirp while she closes the door.  
Emily’s heart jumps to the back of her throat. ‘Shit,’ swinging around, she presses her back against the door on instinct. “Dad! I thought you were going to be out all day?” She gasps upon the sight of the middle-aged man leaning against the frame of the hallway with crossed arms and a cocked eyebrow.  
“I came back for something to eat. Who is this?” He nudges his chin in Allison’s direction who hoovers on the bottom step.  
“This is my friend, Allison,” Emily points her fingers towards the girl before she begins ringing her hands together. “She came over to help me to uh… help me, with, with some stuff.” All her Dad does is blink and Emily begins to panic. “I would have asked if she could come over this morning but you were already gone when I woke up. I um, tried calling you but your phone is on the counter.” She untwists her fingers and points down the hall over her Dad’s shoulder.  
An agonizing, long heartbeat passes before Emily’s Dad pushes off the wall and heads to the girls. Emily sucks in a deep breath, holding it in as she thinks of how hard of a slap she’s most likely going to receive. When he lifts his hand up, she braces for it.  
“Nice of you to come over, Allison, I’m Martin. Sorry about the broken doorbell, just been too busy to fit it yet.” Emily doesn’t miss the side glace he gives her as he holds his hand out to Allison. “I’ll be sure to fix it before you come over next.” He smiles as they shake.  
Emily swallows the large lump in her throat as softly as she can. She doesn’t know which scares her worse: the fact that her Dad’s being friendly and smiling, or the fact that he had overheard her comment about the doorbell.  
“It’s no rush.” Allison softly shakes his hand.  
“You girls have fun. I’ll have my phone on me if you need anything.” He nods to both of them quickly before turning around and walking back into the kitchen.  
“Your Dad seems friendly.”  
“I know,” Emily says suspiciously, eying his shadow as it moves around the kitchen. “Let’s go upstairs before he feels like he needs to offer you something.”  
“Is that a bad thing?” Allison asks as she steps against the wall and lets Emily walk around her and lead the way.  
“Most likely.”  
As she rushes up the stairs, Emily waits patiently at the top as Allison takes each step after looking at the pictures that haven’t been changed in ten years. She wants to tell Allison the pictures of the smiling six year old in most of those were of a little girl who was lied to, hidden from the actions of her Dad by her Mom until two years later when she was literally thrown into it.  
“You were a cute kid.” Allison comments as she reaches the top of the stairs next to Emily.  
“Thanks,” Emily forces a smile. “My Mom liked to dress me up a lot. Uh, my room is over here.” She twists her body and motions to the open door.  
Leading the way, Emily sits at her desk’s chair, allowing Allison to look around at the rows of pictures hanging over her grey walls and her stacks of books overflowing her three bookshelves. Neither of the girls says much until Allison sits on the very edge of Emily’s bed.  
“So, what did you need help with?” Allison swings her legs.  
“Isaac asked me out on a date for tomorrow,” Emily rushes out, blushing at the smug grin Allison has on her face. “And as lame as it sounds, I’ve never been on a date and have no idea what to wear or…anything.” The heat in her cheeks finally feels like it is lighting her face on fire and she buries her face in her hands. “It’s really stupid, I know.”  
“No, no, it’s not,” Allison tries to reassure her. “I’m actually honored that you asked me and not Lydia or Erica.”  
Emily looks up from her hands and takes a deep breath. “I really like Lydia, but her fashion sense and my fashion sense don’t exactly mix,” she tugs on her green shirt under her brown jacket, thinking of the flower prints and dresses Lydia often wears. “And Erica kind of intimidates me. Plus, I figured you’d be the less likely one to give Isaac hell. He seemed nervous enough as it was asking me.”  
“Oh he was,” Allison grins as Emily snaps her full attention up to her. “Isaac asked Scott for advice after practice the other day. But, don’t tell him I told you. Contrary to Lydia’s belief, he can be quiet the devilish puppy if he wants to be.”  
“As long as you don’t tell him I asked for your advice on clothing and the date, then we’ve got a deal.” Emily tucks her shoulders in.  
“Great! Any idea where he’s taking you?” Allison asks, pushing off the bed and walking over to Emily’s closet.

Emily stands next to the tall, bronze statue at the entrance of the park, twirling her umbrella in the soft rain as she waits for Isaac. Though the rain isn’t enough to ruin the day; it does make her wonder if they’re still going to play mini-golf.  
As she shuffles around against the statue, her book bag makes a crinkling noise as the plastic moves against it. The clear dark blue tinted book bag may have gone out of style a long time ago, but the plastic covering of the bag was perfect for days like these so she doesn’t have to worry about her camera. She had been able to get a few photos before the rain started and for that, she was happy.  
What she wasn’t happy about was how she should have let Allison talk her into the ankle boots she had in the back of her closet and had not persisted on her converses. Maybe then she wouldn’t have stepped into the puddle and soaked her left shoe. As she chews her lip over how much her shoe is going to squeak later on, she catches Isaac turn the corner of bushes and begins to wave at her. He’s wearing a light purple V-neck, a light grey jacket and jeans, allowing Emily to let out a sigh of relief through her smile. Allison was right: a baby blue tank top with a black cardigan and skinny jeans was cute enough for an outdoors’s date.   
“Hi!” Isaac waves his hand in front of him as he steps up to Emily.  
“Hi!” Emily replies back. “Here,” she thrusts the umbrella’s handle away from her body, giving room for Isaac to step under the protection.  
“Oh, thanks,” Isaac ducks under the shorter object. Seeing him ducking, Emily jumps slightly and lifts up her arm to raise the height.  
Emily sucks her lips and avoids looking directly at the water droplets caught in Isaac’s curls or his long eyelashes that are very noticeable now that he’s only mere inches away. She could always blame her tinted cheeks on the chilliness from the rain, but she has a feeling his were the same way.  
“I checked the weather on my way here and it’s suppose to rain heavier so uh… is the museum or aquarium okay?” Isaac asks.  
“Either one if perfect.” Emily shrugs in thought.  
“The aquarium is closer. We could cut through the park – hopefully get there before it starts down pouring.”  
“Let’s get going.” Emily steps away from the statue, lifting the umbrella up high to cover them both.  
“Here, I can carry that.” Isaac motions to the umbrella’s handle. Emily silently hands the wooden handle to Isaac as they step into the park.  
“How was the game last night?”  
“It was pretty tough, close game, but uh, we ended up winning.”  
“Congrats! I did some research on lacrosse, and I think I should understand it a bit more by the time you guys have a home game again.” Emily claps her hands together; tangling all but her pointer fingers and points to Isaac.  
“So you’ll be an expert by Thursday night?”  
“Maybe not an expert, but I shouldn’t have to ask the girls too many questions by then.”  
“That’s very impressive,” Isaac nods down at Emily. “So, besides lacrosse research, you do anything else exciting?”  
Emily wrinkles her nose, debating with herself to say that Allison came over to help her pick out her outfit and to talk her through what to expect with a first date or not – she doesn’t like lying. “Homework, work. Allison came over for a little bit last night.” Not giving the whole truth isn’t lying right?  
“You two must be hitting it off pretty well… and you were worried about everyone that first day.” Isaac’s eyes twinkle with a hidden laugh.  
“Hey, your friends are intimidating! I’m quite certain Jackson still doesn’t like me and I wouldn’t hold it against Erica is she rips my arm off if I cross the wrong path with her.” Emily snaps playfully back.  
“Yes, but those two are like that with everybody. Don’t get me wrong, Erica has her sweet moments, but she’s like a big sister who loves to pick on people.”  
Rain beings falling faster from the sky and, instead of moving quicker through the park, Emily slows the duo down to a stop and peaks out from under the green canopy. The sky is still bright from the sun hiding behind the rain clouds, giving perfect vision for Emily to watch as the droplets race from the sky, pass her face, and smack to the blackened cement below. She’s always loves the rain – it puts her in such a calming mood where she was able to escape from reality for a while.  
She must have escaped for a while too long because she suddenly feels a splash of cool water on her cheek. She gasps and turns towards Isaac. “Hey!”  
“I didn’t do anything,” Isaac shakes his head, a smile forming even through the frown he was trying so desperately to keep on.  
“Oh, okay,” Emily nods her head as well, sticking a cupped hand out into the rain, filling up her palm. She pulls it back in and looks at it before looking the other way and then tossing it onto Isaac’s arm. “I didn’t do that either.”  
“You want to start something?” Isaac asks, looking down as the water droplets run to his elbow before rolling off.  
“You already started it,” Emily giggles, whipping her hand out to the rain and smacking droplets onto Isaac’s shirt.  
Isaac raises his eyebrows before he flings water onto Emily as well. The two continue to splash each other, walking a little at a time now when one tries to splash the other.  
The wind picks up and makes Emily shiver, stopping her in the process of hiding behind her hands as shelter from the splash that is coming.  
“We should stop,” Isaac drops his hand from the rain. “I’d hate for you to get sick.”  
“I’m fine,” Emily runs her hands down her arms, warming them up. “I’ve walked in worse weather. Besides,” She crossed her arms loosely. “I was winning.”  
“What, no you weren’t.” Isaac’s jaw drops.  
Emily raises her left eyebrow and looks down at their shirts. Emily’s was only speckled with drops where as Isaac’s has spots of rain all over his.  
Isaac slits his eyes, a smile deepening as his hand reaches out from under the umbrella. Before his palm could even get a few drops, a strong gust of wind sweeps up under the two and into the canopy, ripping it inside out and flying it out of Isaac’s loose hold. The umbrella soars into the air, dancing around, before it lands on the ground a few steps behind them.  
“I’m so sorry!” Isaac’s eyes bug out before he dashes back to retrieve the umbrella. “I didn’t know that would happen,” He runs back to Emily as he fiddles with the canopy, trying to get it to flip back around. “I broke it.” He mumbles, finally getting it back to it’s original side, only to have half the rods bent so badly, half the umbrella lays flat down.  
“No, you didn’t break it,” Emily shakes her head, reaching for the broken item. “It was the cheapest one at the Pharmacy – it had a short life from the beginning.” She pulls the umbrella as closed as it would go and walks over to the trash bin and drops it in there.  
“Do you hate me now?” Isaac splutters when she walks over to him.  
“Over a broken umbrella? Don’t be silly,” Emily waves her hand around in the air as if to erase the question away.  
A loud crack is heard from the sky and Isaac and Emily both turn to see the sheet of rain begin to fall heavily from the clouds and heading straight towards them. “We’re going to get soaked,” is the last thing Emily says before it starts down pouring on them.  
Emily lets out a shriek mixing with laughter, her ears tucked into her shoulders as she turns her hands out to the rain. She looks over at Isaac who is ducking as well with a hand over his eyes to block the rain from running into them. She doesn’t know was possess her to grab Isaac’s hand, but she slips her hand into his and tugs on his arm. “Come on,” She giggles as they race down the path towards the aquarium.


	8. Chapter 8

Still holding tightly onto Isaac’s hand, Emily rushes up the stairs to the aquarium, a bright smile on her face even through the rain dropping down in buckets on them. She only lets go of his hand when they get to the revolving door and pushes in.  
“That was defiantly the fumiest run I’ve ever been in,” Emily comments as soon as Isaac gets inside. She begins flinging her wrists around, trying to rid herself of some droplets of water.  
“Looks like it’s letting up,” Isaac says as he slips out of his jacket and peaks outside the glass doors.  
“Just our luck huh?” Emily giggles, looking up to see Isaac tilting his head with a smile. “What?” she tilts her own head mockingly.  
“You’ve got a leaf, or something…” He points towards Emily’s wet forehead where the brown mark sticks out from under her wet bangs over her right eyebrow. Isaac lifts his right hand cautiously, brushing his thumb over the area. Emily winces quietly and shuffles back. “Is that a scab?”  
“Yea, I… kind of ran into a cabinet a few days ago,” Emily shakes her head, pushing her bangs around on her forehead to conceal the scab again. “I’m a bit of a klutz,” She quickly shrugs. “I’m going to go find a bathroom, get dried off a bit before we go in? I’ll meet you back here in a few.” And with that, Emily turns on her heels and heads towards the bathroom, not leaving room for Isaac to ask any more questions about her scab.  
After pushing the heavy door open with both hands, Emily steps into the dim florescence lights and scans her new surroundings. Tiled floors, three stalls with dark grey metal door and, just what she’s wanting, a hand dryer.  
She leans over and checks to see if anyone was in the stalls – a habit she’s picked up on doing in order to check injuries during the day at school. Standing up straight again, she sighs of relief. Alone.  
Slipping her arms out of her book bag straps, she gently drops it to the floor next to the trash bin. Thinning her lips, she deeply frowns her brows at the same time. She’s not exactly sure how she’s going to go about this. Thinking’s there’s no real attractive way to do this, she slams her hand on the thick, round, silver button, and throws her head under the warm air.  
Scratching to get her hair off her scalp, Emily twists and turns under the air, having to smack the button every thirty seconds when it stops to restart it. As soon as she feels her hair is no longer matted strings, she stands upright – thanking silently that she’s got thin hair. She knows she doesn’t have time to dry out all of her clothes, but she had just enough time to fix her make up enough to re-hide the ugly scab that’s managed to escape its way out.  
Grabbing the top handle of her book bag, Emily pulls the item up off the floor and places it in the sink. Rummaging through her work shirt and khakis, camera, and her copy of Hamlet, she finds her small, black and red polka dotted make up bag and quickly unzips it. It takes her less then a second to grab her foundation, screw the cap off, and flip it upside down over her fingertip. Using her right hand to pull her bangs back, Emily quickly dabs on and around the scab, concealing it enough to look more like a bump on the head she’s just received rather then the nasty wound she’s had for nearly a week.  
Once she felt it was well enough covered, she puts everything back in her make up bag and zips it up. After dropping the small bag into the larger one, Emily steps back away from the sink, trying to give herself the best view of her full body. Besides her hair being practically dry, everything else was still drenched. There wasn’t much she could do to dry out her jeans and shoes even though she deeply wishes there is, because both materials are now heavy to wear.  
She pulls at the tank top, peeling the cotton away from her skin, lifting it high up until she catches sight of the purple, red, and black marking. The bruise has gotten better in appearance, but it still pains Emily greatly after she moves around too much.   
‘If I only hadn’t left – No!’ Emily shouts in her head as she shakes it, ridding the last piece of the sentence. She’s here with Isaac, a boy who knows nothing about the life she lives at home; she’s going to keep it that way. ‘Ignore it,’ Emily mentally tells herself, stepping up to the sink and zipping up her bag quick.  
“You’re on your first date, with Isaac Lahey,” Emily says with a determined faced into the mirror. “Don’t let your Dad screw it up.” With a shake of her head, she grabs the book bag’s handle, swings on her heels, and stalks out of the bathroom.

Emily finds Isaac sitting on the bench between the men and women’s bathroom, his jacket spread out, next to him.  
“Hi sorry, was trying to dry off the best I could,” she says as soon as she walks up to him.  
“It’s okay,” Isaac quickly stands to his feet, sliding his jacket off the bench. “I was drying my jacket. It’s still a little damp, but it’s better then nothing.” He holds the it out to Emily.  
“Are you sure?” Emily questions, looking at the jacket with raised brows.  
“It’s the least I can do since I broke your umbrella.”  
Emily giggles with a small roll of her eyes as she takes the jacket. “You didn’t break my umbrella, the wind did, but – thanks.” She smiles, dropping her book bag down on the bench.  
As Emily strips off the skin of the wet cardigan, Isaac adverts his eyes to the fish moral on the walls – or at least, he tries to; Emily catches the corner of his gaze while she drops the cardigan over her book bag. She ducks her head, biting the inside of her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling as she slips her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. She’s not going to say anything about him staring because, she wasn’t completely stripping, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. But, because her head is tucked into her shoulder, she catches whiff of Isaac’s smell and then doesn’t hide her gleeful smirk – coffee and woods. She glances up and sees that he’s still staring and heat covers the tops of her ears at the same time Isaac’s own ears turn a light pink and he looks away.  
“Sorry,” he mumbles, running his fingers over his forehead and then tangling them into his curls.  
“No, I got caught in your smell,” Emily waves her hand in the air, leaning down to grab her cardigan and book bag. She stops halfway through standing up straight as she realizes what she’s just said, her eyes widening to the size of grapefruits. “I just mean – from your jacket – it just hit me in the face… which is exactly what I want to do to myself right now,” she mumbles, pulling her lips into a tight, thin line.  
“I hope it was a good smell; that’s my favorite jacket.”  
Emily looks up at Isaac with a bit of amazement; he’s not making fun of her for the comment, he’s smiling, but she can tell it’s not a teasing one he’s given her before at school during lunch. Instead, it’s much softer, a lot more gentle then she’s seen him give out before. Words don’t form in her mouth, so instead she closes the slightly hanging jaw and nods her head.  
“Let’s go in?” Isaac hitches his thumbs over his shoulder to the stairs leading up to the ticket counter.

Emily bunches the end of Isaac’s sleeves in her fists and walks up to the thick glass of the jellyfish, peering in to see the lightly brown and clear colored sea animal.  
“The chrysaora hysoscella,” Isaac says, walking up next to her. When Emily looks up at him and gives him a confused look with her brows dug deep together, he chuckles. “I read the plaque.” He lifts his finger to point to the orange slap of wood next to the tank and then drops his hands back into his front jean pocket.  
“And here I thought you were just really knowledgeable on jellies.” Emily teases, lifting her camera up from around her neck and positioning it towards the jellyfish. She begins snapping a few photos. When she sees Isaac’s reflection in the glass, she turns her body more towards the still damp boy and is able to steal two fast photos before Isaac caches on that he’s now the subject and not the swimming animals. He ducks his head and scuffs his boots on the slick floor.  
“Sorry,” Emily pulls her camera away from her face and gingerly lets it slip out of her fingers, allowing it to bounce softly against Isaac’s jacket. “Usually I ask first. Do you not like having your picture taken?”  
“It’s not that,” Isaac pauses, taking a deep breath and shrugging his shoulders. “Not too many of my pictures turn out great.”  
“Either you’re being very modest, or that’s another version of saying, ‘No, don’t take my picture’.”  
Isaac looks down at Emily with a look she can’t decipher before he tilts his head to the right and pulls his hand out of his pocket. “Can I see them?”  
“Yea, sure,” Emily lifts her camera off her chest. The neck strap tangles in her hair but she easily tugs it free before she presses a button and it takes her back to her gallery. “In all honestly, if you don’t like them, I’ll delete them. I won’t keep pictures if it makes people uncomfortable.” She holds her camera out to Isaac.  
He gives her a small nod, showing that he understands and looks down at the camera. Clicking over once to the other photo, he seems a bit shocked when he sees it. His lips pull into a slight frown as his eyebrows raise high, his head pulling back. Emily opens her mouth to ask if they were really bad photos when Isaac loses his frown and drops his mouth into an open smile. “I actually look pretty good in these.” He gives her a sly grin.  
Emily lets the question drop from her lips and instead gives a small laugh. She didn’t know what his first reaction was supposed to mean, but he said he liked it. She didn’t know how to respond to his statement either. Was she to agree with him or disagree as a tease? Would he understand that it was a tease or will it blow up in her face? She makes a mental note to ask Allison about flirting techniques when she tells her about the date later on.  
An idea flashes in Isaac’s eyes as he holds the camera up towards Emily. “Why don’t I take your photo? Turn the tables slightly?”  
Emily’s palms rise up from her sides, just the tips of her fingers poking out at the openings as she looks down at her appearance. Her tank top is still dimming in color and sticking to random places of her stomach. The denim material of her jeans were even worse, forming a second skin tight around her legs, adding more pounds to her tiny frame as they rub in places they don’t belong. Instead of just looking well worn, the beat up converses now look as if they belong in the deep pits of a garbage pile. She is in no condition to be photographed.  
“I look like a wet dog.” She replies with a crinkled nose.  
“You definitely don’t smell like one,” Isaac shrugs.  
“Oh, well that’s a plus,” Emily rolls her eyes playfully, the corners of her mouth pulling into a smile before she can stop herself. She then hears the familiar click of her camera going off and sees Isaac lower it down just below his twinkling eyes.  
“Perfect.”  
In response, Emily wrinkles her nose again and pokes her tongue out. Another click bounces off the glass around them. This time, Isaac pulls the camera down, away from his face and hands it back to Emily. “I want a copy of the second photo.”  
“I’ll post it online later,” Emily nods, pulling the neck strap back over her head. Isaac nods as well as the two continue to walk through the rest of the jelly exhibit.

As a group of young children race between Emily and Isaac to be the first to get to the shark swimming past the glass, Emily stops and aims her camera, catching the moment of the smiling and laughing faces pressing against the glass. She smiles at the innocence of the children no older then third grade and hopes they get to keep it for as long as possible.  
She goes to step father into the submerged tunnel when she realizes Isaac is no longer right next to her side. Frowning, she turns halfway around to see the tall, curly haired blond standing at the entrance to the tunnel off to the side, his arms rigid as he runs his thumbs rapidly over each finger. Even though she was a few feet in front of him, she could tell he was chewing on the inside of his lip as his eyes zone out on the large plastic plant next to him. He was trying to psych himself up for something, she’s had that expression herself many of times, but she wasn’t sure what he is nervous about. It was then that Isaac glances up and into the tank as a stingray passes over and he takes a deep, shaky breath.  
Emily looks over her shoulder and into the tunnel. Maybe he can’t swim or being under the tunnel full of water and dangerous ocean animals makes Isaac uneasy. Whatever the case, she wasn’t going to make him feel embarrassed about it. She places her camera gently down against her chest and slowly makes her way back to him.  
“Hey.” Emily says softly.  
“Hey!” Isaac jumps, his eyes wide in shock. “Sorry.” His face softens. “I –I was just-.”  
“The dark makes me nervous,’ Emily admits out of the side of her mouth as she sways on her toes. “Actually,” she lets out a sigh. “it terrifies me… not being able to see in front of me,” she waves her hand in front of her face quick.  
“Why are you telling me this?” confusion fills Isaac’s question.   
Emily wraps her hands around the straps of her book bag and pulls her shoulders up to her ears. “I could tell… that you were nervous?” she swallows hard, hoping she hadn’t read his expressions completely wrong and had just revealed one of her deepest fears; one that she’s never shared with anyone. “I just figured I’d share one of mine, so you wouldn’t be embarrassed. I know how though it is some times.”  
The right side of Isaac’s mouth turns up as he just stares at her for a moment. Emily’s heart races at what his reply will be.  
“That’s really sweet.”  
She gives him a small smile back, too relieved he hadn’t just laughed in her face to do much else.  
“I’m not too fond of small places,” Isaac admits. “It’s been so long since I was last here. I forgot they had this,” he nudges towards the tunnel.  
“Oh!” Emily connects everything together. “We don’t have to go through it. We can always turn back around, or, if you want to go through, we can always rush through it, or run. Whichever you’re comfortable with.” She shakes her head as she rambles off the possibilities.  
“I want to go through it with you,” Isaac laughs. “You’ve been talking about seeing the new baby shark since the ticket booth.”  
Heat rises in her cheeks as Emily looks down, her brown hair falling from behind her ear. “Are you sure?” she asks, looking back up as she tucks the loose strand back.  
“Positive,” Isaac nods. “It shouldn’t be too bad. Right?” he asks hopefully.  
“Right.” Emily nods back, holding out her hand from her side, still close to her body incase of rejection. She doesn’t know if he’ll take it. If not for comfort during the tunnel, then maybe just to hold. People on dates do that all the time.  
Isaac takes another deep breath in and grabs her hand, surprising her when he laces their fingers together. His hands are slightly rough around the knuckles and Emily think how it’s a nice change from the though callused ones of her Dad’s. Isaac raises his brows, seeming to ask silently if what he did is okay. Emily, without really answering, tugs on his hand and leads him into the tunnel.  
Much to her surprise, Isaac seems to take the transition from the open space of the jelly exhibit and into the tunnel just fine. No dragging his feet, fidgeting, or sweaty palms – all signs Emily has when she’s nervous. The only sign he is giving is his constant eye movement and his ever so slightly tightening on their fingers with each step they take deeper in. She squeezes back gently and Isaac loosens his grip. He tightens it again though when they come across a group of kids all bunched up in front of a panel of glass as their teacher points out the different fish in the tank.  
“Do you like to swim?” Emily asks as they stop behind the school kids blocking the rest of the way.  
“Every once in a while.” Isaac continues to rush his eyes around their environment.  
“Ever swim in the ocean?”  
“Once. When I was little. Have you?” He finally adverts his bewildered eyes down to Emily.  
“Nope,” she pops her lips. “But, I always imagine it being like this.” Emily motions above her head. “Deep enough that the light is still there, but still full of life and beauty.”  
She can feel the tension drain from Isaac’s tight muscles as he begins to look more into the aquarium around them and not the thin tunnel they are walking through.  
A good distraction; that’s what Emily’s learned over the years.  
She really wishes she could capture the moment of Isaac’s relaxed face being mesmerized by the fish above and the water’s reflection dancing across his features, but the hand she needs to take the photo is wrapped loosely in Isaac’s now, and she wasn’t about to let it go. Instead, she takes a mental snapshot and stores it, ready to go back to it when she recalls this moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super super sorry it’s been so long again – I feel so bad when I don’t update as often as I would like. In all honestly, I kept getting stuck on certain parts of the story and I wanted it to be perfect for you guys ☺  
> But, I was wondering if you readers had anything you wanted to see in the story – rather that be between Emily and Isaac or any other interactions. I have some main ideas for the story, but I still need some filler stuff, so I figured – why not ask the readers?   
> If you think of anything let me know at my tumblr or in a review!  
> http://lahey-with-a-side-of-sterek.tumblr.com  
> As always, thanks so much for reading and keeping up with this story, I promise I’ll get better at updates.


	9. Chapter 9

Emily hums as her hands dip elbow deep into the bubbly dishwater as she searches blindly for the silverware she knows is sunk at the bottom. The diner had gotten swamped with all the teenagers from the debate tournament that had happened earlier that day – she didn’t know such a group of skinny kids could eat so much food. An hour after the last school group had left, everyone was still trying to clean up everything. Of course, at this time of night, that meant Emily, Miss. Neoma, and Cory were on a rapid pace if they wanted to get out of there anywhere close to midnight. Which is also why Emily is busy with dishes and Cory is busy with the bathrooms – no time for rest.  
“Don’t you ever rest?” Miss. Neoma asks when she walks into the back room with two plates with pieces of her famous honey buttermilk pie.  
‘Yea, with my feathered pillow and four layers of blankets,” Emily smiles, dropping another stack of dishes into the water. “Had a long day, just want to go home.”  
“Haven’t tripped over any shoes today have you?” Miss. Neoma asks as she pulls a small Styrofoam box off a shelf and slides one of the pieces of pie into it.  
“Fortunately, no,” Emily frowns with a shake of her head. “Been keeping watch on my feet,” she sends a small smile to her boss who just side eyes her, snapping the box shut and pulls a pen from her apron pocket.  
“Uh huh.”  
Miss. Neoma is about the only one who’s ever called Emily out of her bullshit excuses for all the injuries she’s obtained since she started working here two and a half years ago. Emily came in with a mountain-sized lump on her cheek from the punch her dad swung at her. The rest of her coworkers didn’t even question that Emily did it to herself when putting on a sweater earlier that morning, but Miss. Neoma drug her to the back, put some cold gel over the injury and told Emily that, “Whenever you get tired of lying, I’m always here.” Since that day, she always gives Emily a side eye glance when she gives her newest excuse.  
Just as Miss. Neoma finishes writing on the box and leans against the counter with the remaining piece of pie, Emily’s phone dings and vibrates on the shelf next to the sink. Emily cranes her neck to see the response.  
ISAAC: Hey! Ducks are terrifying birds! No way am I going near them!  
Emily tries to swallow down her snort as she drops down from her tiptoes and shakes her head. Isaac and her have been texting back and forth since he walked her to work after their date. It’s been about random things, the last text being about Isaac’s reasoning behind not cutting through Sunset Park on their way to the diner – the ducks.  
“Oh yea, how’d that date go; with the Lahey boy right?” Miss. Neoma asks with a forkful of pie tucked into her cheek.  
“You make me sound like I have so many boyfriends.” Emily rolls her eyes playfully.  
“Well you have that big group you hang out with now don’t you?”  
“Yea,” Emily shrugs. “but it’s only been a week and this was Isaac and I’s first date. So, who knows, things can change.”  
Miss. Neoma stops her fork from digging into the last two pieces of pie left and points the honey covered utensil in Emily’s direction. “What have we talked about overthinking things?”  
“I’m not overthinking things,” Emily shakes her head fast, her attention now on the bubbles dissolving in the lukewarm water. “I’m just… preparing myself.”  
“For what?” Miss. Neoma asks softly, pulling the plate away from her face and looking at Emily with concern.  
“For them not to like me? It’s not like I have a long list of friends outside of the diner.”  
“Oh honey, you’ve got to give yourself more credit then that. You’re an amazing girl, and if those kids can’t see that, well, screw them.”  
“Thanks, Miss. Neoma.” Emily smiles.  
“But, don’t sell yourself short because you’re scared. You make sure to give those kids a chance; especially Isaac. I have a feeling you’ll be surprised by them.” Miss. Neoma comes over to Emily and gives her a side hug, dropping her empty plate into the sink. “Besides, if they ever did anything to hurt you, I’d have to ban them from Honey Oak’s and Lord knows the Sheriff’s kid pays half you guys’ salaries in his curly fry addiction.”  
Emily just laughs because the Stilinskis comes into the diner a couple times a month, and though they usually sit out of Emily’s section, she’s seen the large side order of curly fries that head for their table each time.  
“I clean the bathroom for ten minutes and you sell the last two pieces of Honey Buttermilk?!” A tall, brown haired college student burst through the swinging door with a bucket and gloves in one hand. “I thought you were saving me a piece Miss. Neoma.”  
“Sorry Cory, I totally forgot,” Miss. Neoma slides the Styrofoam box off the counter and into Emily’s open book bag with a wink. “Would you settle for the rest of the caramel brownies tonight, there’s about half a batch left…”  
“I guess,” Cory sighs, hanging the bucket with the gloves hanging over the rim on the back hook. “But you gotta promise to get me a piece tomorrow night, otherwise it’ll be a week before I get a piece of that famous pie,” he points a finger in Miss. Neoma’s direction.  
“I tell you what, you take the trash out tonight and I’ll give the rest of tonight’s desserts for you to take home to your girlfriend and you’ll get a fresh piece of pie tomorrow.”  
“Deal!” Cory claps his hands and rushes over to the pile of trash bags thrown by the back door.  
Miss. Neoma sends Emily one more smirk before she pushes the swinging door and disappears.

“See you Monday.” Emily says as she fiddles with the zipper of Isaac’s jacket under the protection of the awning as her boss twists the set of keys around in the lock. He had persisted she kept the jacket, at least until next time they saw each other – he knew her cardigan was still wet in her backpack. She agreed, as long as he swore not to bring up the broken umbrella again.  
He agreed.  
“See you Monday sweetie,” Miss. Neoma says, sending a smile to Emily.  
“Night Miss. Neoma!” Cory shouts from his truck’s open driver side door, enthusiastically waving as the older woman waves back with a shake of her head and walks to her aging Nissan.   
“Let’s get you home,” Cory drums on his wet rooftop, sending water flying in every direction.  
Emily doesn’t say anything as she climbs into his large black Toyota and straps into the passenger’s seat next to the large pile of dessert and treats Miss. Neoma packed him.  
“So I hear you went on a date with Lahey.” Cory says, flipping his headlights on, roaring his truck to life.  
“Yea, we went to the aquarium?” Emily raises a brow.  
“He’s a nice kid right? Isaac? I don’t personally know him but his brother Camden was two years above me in school and he was a nice guy…” He says as he pulls out of Honey Oak’s lot.  
“Yea, Isaac’s really sweet.”  
“Awesome. Great,” Cory nods his head. “You guys haven’t…. you know?”  
Emily knits her brows deep and glares at Cory. What the hell was he – oh! “No! No, no. We haven’t even kissed yet! This was our first date, and any other time we’ve hung out we were with his friends,” Emily shakes her head.  
“Well okay,” Cory nods, as he seems to process all this information. “If you guys get to that level of your relationship, you make sure he covers his -.” Cory gestures to his lap.  
“Oh my God,” Emily drops her face into her hands. “Are you giving me a sex talk?”  
“I just want you to be safe, you’re like my little sister!” Cory cries out as Emily rubs her face as deep as she could into her palms, wishing they could just swallow her from this embarrassment. “If you two ever need anything and are too embarrassed, let me or Tessa know. You have both our numbers right?”  
“Yes I do,” Emily mumbles, leaning against the door and looking out the dirty window to the streetlights flashing past. Thank God she was almost home.  
“I’m serious. And if he ever lays a hand on you without your permission…”  
Emily winces at the thought of Isaac in place of her dad hitting her and lifts her hand up and begins chewing on her thumb. The jacket’s sleeve slides down past her wrist. “He’s not like that.”  
“I’m not saying he is, just – be careful, okay?” Cory asks, but the way he says it makes it sound more like a request.  
She glances over at him and sees how much concern is in his eyes, even though he’s trying hard to hide it. Emily nods, turning her attention back out to the midnight darkness.  
Cory is also like her older brother – in the sense where he gives her rides home from work on his shifts, and will ask her about school and classes, her photographs; but she never tells him anything personal, and she still flinches away when he raises his hands too high or too fast during his animated talks.  
Emily drops her hand from her mouth, shifting in her seat to grab her book bag off the floor of the truck as Cory pulls to the end of her street. “Thanks for the ride… and the advice.” She smiles as soon as the truck jolted to a stop.  
“Are you sure you don’t just want me to drop you off in front of your house; it’s still raining out.” Cory mentions, pulling his gear into park and throwing his right arm over the back of the middle seat.  
“As much as you love your truck, it wakes up the whole neighborhood. My Dad won’t be too thrilled if it wakes him.”  
“I’m working on it.” Cory dips his brows slightly, his voice in a mocking tone.  
Emily laughs and leans across the mountain of treats in the middle seat to give Cory a side hug. “Good luck in your track meet next week.”  
“Thanks!” Cory says as they pull apart. “Have fun with Isaac. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” he calls out as Emily pushes open the door and slides down.  
“That leaves a wide range.” Emily jokingly rolls her eyes.  
Cory barks out a laugh and shakes his head as Emily slams the passenger door and waves him off. With a large grin and a twinkle in his eye, he waves back before shifting gears and putts down the street.  
As his rear lights disappear around the corner, Emily glances up to the sky. The moon’s bright light shines through the holes of the dark grey clouds as rain gently falls on her cheeks. Thankfully the lightening and thunder rolled through early that evening and she wasn’t going to have to walk in the pouring rain again.  
She slides on her book bag and then tugs the hood out from under it, flinging it over her head. It may not pouring out, but Emily wasn’t going to be able to take a shower tonight and she’d rather not go to bed with wet hair. She begins the short walk down the street.  
Stuffing her hands into the jacket’s pockets, she ducks her head in a bashful smile when her fingers touch around the plastic wrappings of the few fish shaped sour candies Isaac bought at the gift shop. He had bought a large handful of them, claiming they wouldn’t be the slightest bit sour, popped about three in his mouth at once, and then proceeded to scrunch his face up as small as it would go.  
“Not my smartest idea.” He said through chokes.  
Emily shakes her head again at the memory and pushes her hands deeper into the pockets. Even with the jacket over most of her, the icy rain still hits her in the face with piercing effects, almost making her want to jog the way home, but home is where her dad is, and she’d rather take her time.  
Besides, even with the clouds out, she could sometimes see the stars.  
“I like sitting outside watching the stars and the moon.” Emily comments as Isaac and her walk up Martin Street on the way to her work. The grey of the stormy day was turning purple of the night, streetlights minutes away from flickering on.  
“The dark, it doesn’t scare you then?” Isaac asks.  
“Not when I’m outside,” Emily shakes her head, swinging their linked hand gently as they crossed over to Kelly. “It’s bigger… you have more chance of an escape verses being locked in a room. It doesn’t mean I’m less terrified, but that’s what I tell myself anyway.”  
She doesn’t know if she just imagined it, but she could have sworn she felt Isaac gently squeeze her hand tighter.  
Holding the rest of her keys tight in one hand so they wouldn’t bang against the door, Emily lifts her hand up to the deadbolt and, as quietly as she could, pushes the key in and begins to turn it. As it finally clicks over, the loud noise causes Emily to bite hard on her lower lip and tense up. Gently pulling the key back out of the lock, she sucks in a deep breath and twists the knob, pushing open the door just slightly to peak in. If her dad was still in the living room, she’ll make a run upstairs; at this time of night, he’ll be too gone to even stand on his own, yet alone chase Emily up a set of stairs. If he wasn’t there, he would already be in his room, and that means she’s safe for the night.  
The TV wasn’t dancing on the closet door, allowing Emily to let out the breath she’s held since she unlocked the door. As soon as she is safe from the cold rain outside, she pulls down her hood, toes off her shoes, and heads straight for the kitchen. She doesn’t bother to switch on the lights, simply because she’s gone through the room a dozen times with just the light of the moon. Walking across the kitchen Emily balances on her ankles and opens the lazy susan’s door. The turn table itself had stopped working years ago but Emily still uses the back of it to hide her favorite snack – oatmeal cream pies. She grabs two from the open box and stands back on her feet, shutting the door with a soft thud.  
She places the plastic wrapping between her teeth and, off the counter grabs one of the large plastic soda cups her dad brings home from the gas station nearly every day. Sniffing it to insure he hadn’t put alcohol in the mixture, Emily then dumps the rest of the Pepsi down the drain, swishes hot water around the cup, and switches the tab over the cold before filling it up.  
With the glass half full, she twists the water off and heads up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, she goes right past her room and towards her dad’s. The TV is casting shadows off the half filled United State Quarters’ map hanging off the wall. ‘Must not have been able to get comfortable downstairs tonight,” Emily thinks as she grabs the oatmeal cream pies out of her teeth and taps the door open more.  
“Dad,” she calls out softly. “Dad, it’s me, Emillette. I just got home – thought I would tell you.”  
“S’door locked?” a mumbled question comes from the pile of blankets.  
“Yea, I locked it on my way in.” Emily leans softly on the doorframe.  
“Chores…”  
“Yea, I’ll uh, get those done tomorrow. Promise.” Emily chews on her bottom lip.  
“Your ass…” Her dad trails off as the lump beneath the blankets twists around and then remains still. He’s passed out, but he didn’t need to finish the sentence, there were about five different sentences he used that started with those two words, and Emily didn’t want to hear any of them.  
Placing her pointer finger on top of the door handle, she pulls the door until the wood hits the frame.  
She waits until she’s behind her closed bedroom door with the lock secure before she turns the light on. Tossing the treats on her messy, unmade bed, Emily walks over to her nightstand and places the glass next to her alarm clock. Her book bag automatically goes to the end of her bed, knowing she’ll dig into it’s contents as soon as she crawls into the softness of it’s sheets.  
Grabbing the sleeves of the jacket, Emily stops in her tracks. She went on a date with Isaac and it went perfect – even the part where they got drenched by the rain. She slips the jacket off her shoulders and drapes it over the back of her desk’s chair, hoping it won’t dry stiff. Tapping her computer’s mouse pad, it flashes on, prompting for Emily’s password. She gives it and clicks around on the screen until her iTunes pops up. Making sure her volume is at a reasonable volume, she presses play.  
HeartSing by BIGkid plays through the small speakers as Emily proceeds to dance around her room as she strips off her work clothes. Crossing her arms in front of her waist, she tugs the hem of her shirt up and over her head, swinging the material around between her fingers in front of her until it becomes loose, at which point, she flings the shirt over into the hamper. It lands off to the right of the plastic tub, but Emily doesn’t care. Popping out the button of her pants, she unzips them and begins shimming out of them, bouncing on one leg at a time.  
When she’s finally in her bra and underwear, she jumps up on her bed, mimicking as if she was playing the trumpet along with the chorus, throwing in improvised hand gestures in between.  
Half way through her third chorus, Emily sees a part of her book bag light up. Her phone. She bends her knees and drops down onto her pillows, reaching across her bed for her bag. Unzipping it, she grabs the device.  
Isaac: Did you make it home safe?  
She slides her thumb across the screen to answer the text.  
Emily: I did, thanks. Thought you went to bed a long time ago?  
After she sent off her reply, Emily scrambles off the bed and over to her dresser to put on a nightshirt. Isaac may not be able to see her through the phone, but she still feels awkward talking to the boy while she is half naked. Taking her bra off and throwing it on the floor on top of her work shirt, Emily slips on an old PLAY DAY shirt that still fits from middle school. Grabbing her laptop off the desk, she pauses her music and climbs into bed.  
Isaac: Stiles came over and wanted to play Call of Duty. Couldn’t resist.  
Emily: Scott’s Mom lets you all play this late?  
Emily rips open an oatmeal cream pie and it disappears in three bites.  
Isaac: She’s working night shift. I’m in bed now though.  
Emily: Me too. Eating my dinner of oatmeal cream pies.  
Isaac: That sounds healthy :P  
Emily sees the text message as she stuffs the remaining half of the second oatmeal cream pie into her cheeks and reaches again for the book bag. She pulls her bag into her lap and swallows down the snack alongside the large gulp of water. Wiping the access water from the corner of her lip, she grabs her phone off the pillow.  
Emily: Can’t make gourmet meal at one am. Plus, I’ve gotten use to Boyd’s cooking.  
That was true, within the last week, Boyd has made everyone lasagna, homemade mac and cheese, and a vegetable casserole. He must give Derek a grocery list, because from the contains of the cupboards she’s seen, Derek lives like a college bachelor – but the teens who practically live there probably don’t help that matter.  
Isaac: Very true, I’m going to be. Otherwise I’m going to fall asleep on you. Hope you enjoy your dinner.  
Emily: Will do. Night.  
Isaac: Night Emily.  
Emily let’s out a sigh through her giggles as she drops back onto her pillows. This day was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so good news! I have the next three chapters outlined and planned out so they should be coming out a lot faster then they have been – that and school it getting let out in four weeks (yahoo!) Thank you guys so so much with sticking through with me being a crappy uploader – I know this is all kind of a bit of a filler, but stick with it! I have so much in store!
> 
> <3 Alisha


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